Technology nightmares

For the past month or so, I had been having insane computer problems; the internet was slow, pages wouldn't scroll down, my firewall kept disabling, the list goes on. During the past week, it got beyond bad. I couldn't even go on Facebook (Gasp!) without having to refresh the browsing page because it was running so damn slow.

So, today, I decided to get down to business and figure out what in God's green earth was going on. I did everything. I started off by running a full scan. Two hours later, I had to clean out the disk drive and perform a disk defragmenter thing, you know, and all that jazz. After all that was finished, about an hour later, I had to update my computer. That nasty ass update took three hours (?!). So now I am thinking that I must have had some sort of luck in fixing my computer. No dice. My antivirus is now yielding a huge red "X" and saying that my computer is at risk. Whattttttttt.

Praise the Lord that I have a smart phone, and thus have access to the almighty internet, so I go researching as to what to do next. To my astonishment, I find out that my antivirus program is the down right culprit. Ohhh the irony. Apparently, in 2000, the owner of the once fabulous antivirus program, McAfee, had decided to sell his company and from there it went all down hill. People are having problems left, right and center with this damn program, and it even makes up its own viruses. Lovely.

So, on I go to uninstall this "antivirus" protection. All these warnings pop up that say, "WARNING! You are disabling necessary antivirus protection and exposing your computer to threats." Pffffft.. as long as I am done with your ass, I don't see this being an issue. I click the "proceed to uninstall" button and voila! my computer is working like it did when I opened it up from its packaging back on Christmas day.

Lesson of the day, do not, and I repeat not, buy or use McAfee antivirus protection. I have never had so many problems in my technological life. Don't be a cheap ass (like I was being) and just stick with what works. ie. Norton.

Until next time..

Living green

I've always been in to the "green scene" and have been an active recycler of many different things: the obvious bottles for moola, bringing our own bags to the grocery store and local recycling service this lovely city offers - containers, newsprint and paper products.

Contributing to these different recycling options, we have significantly reduced our garbage in half. However, I still feel like it is not enough.

I want to start a home compost. Now, living in an apartment does not always deem this easy.. or maybe even possible, but I am determined. After briefly searching the wonderful worldwide web, I have come up with the idea of a "trash can" compost.. ironic, I know. It essentially consists of a plastic garbage pail with a lid and several large holes cut out (with mesh covering said holes). The idea thrills me. I can now imagine that our trash will be cut down ten fold because we throw away so much food.. yes, I know, I know.. why purchase food if we don't eat it? But don't rag on me because we all do it.

Now obviously a compost isn't really necessary unless you have somewhere to use it's wonderful composty goodness. Hence my next brilliant idea: I want to start a garden on our deck. We just so happen to be fortunate enough to live on the ground level and have a lovely large deck.. not balcony. I would love to get some large cedar boxes to line the deck and possibly some boxes to put on the ledge.. think along the lines of flower boxes. A little garden would not only save costs, but it would be better for our health.. no pesticides or herbicides. I could basically grow anything; carrots, peas, lettuce, potatoes, zucchini, asparagus, herbs, and even some fruit! I am thinking along the lines of strawberries and tomatoes. Not only will my apartment garden contain a bountiful amount of veggies, but it will also allow for beautiful flowers and luscious green grass for my three furry monsters.

I've always really enjoyed gardening, but haven't really entertained the idea of actually having one, with the limited space and all. Of course I have to have this brilliant idea come while we are in the middle of fall and with winter quickly threatening us. I suppose I can look at this as a good thing because now I can start saving for my supplies. I pretty much blame my Martha Stuart magazine subscription for subliminally presenting me with this gardening desire. I have been seeing way too many adds for gardening gloves (and embarrassingly swooning over them) and watering cans.. not to mention adorable gardening spades, and the essential gardeners carrying box.. yes, essential. Having this idea at this time of the year will also give me time to prepare and decide which seeds I would like to plant, and if they need to be started before being plunged into 'ol mother earth.

All this talk about gardens now has me excited for garden visitors, butterflies and bumble bees! And now I am inclined to also include a bird feeder. And you can't just include one bird feeder, you must have two to please both seed munchers and sweet nectar suckers, ie. humming birds. Now my cats are really going to love me! They get grass and a show.. a very tempting show.

Until next time..

Chicken feet

Don't knock it until you have had it.

I should first go on to say that not every restaurant serves good feet.. gosh, I sound like a cannibal.

There is an excellent Chinese restaurant here in the lower mainland that serves some of the best Dim Sum you could possibly find. Sure, it's not as authentic.. and by authentic I mean that the Dim Sum isn't wheeled around on a cart ready for you to pluck it off.. but it is instead made to order, fresh, and mmm damn delicious. I could eat their steamed shrimp dumplings all day, every day!

Growing up in a small town in northern BC, I had never been exposed to any food other than typical western cuisine; however, I should note that I think that my mom was Asian in a past life because we used to eat all kinds of chicken liver, chicken heart, fried rice and fried okra. Anywayyyyy.. besides my mom's unique diversions, we mainly ate the "typical" food found in Canada: hamburgers, chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, grilled cheese.. you get the point. 

So needless to say, when I moved to the lower mainland, I was blown away by the diversity of food. Not that we didn't have different kinds of food where I grew up.. okay, one Chinese restaurant. So, lets just say that I wasn't exposed to much.

There are so many different styles of food that I adore; however, I still cannot get over the fact that people eat cow stomach. I do not think that I could ever venture down that road. Something about gastric juices does not turn my crank.. Or chicken intestine.. okay, lets just say anything that involves the digestive track.

I think I will just stick to body parts that walked around in poo all day.

Such a double standard.

Until next time..

Adventures in waxing

I hate hair. Like hate. Capital H-ate.

I associate it with feeling dirty.

And I am obviously not talking about head hair here.. duh.

My sister and one of my closest friends had told me of their new found love of going to the esthetician and getting a full blown Brazilian.

This completely blew my mind and had me curious to no end. Sure, I had always seen this risque service offered at many different salons, but I always turned my head away from it because it was as foreign to me as Spanish.

So, this weekend I decided to get brave and give it a go.

It may or may not have been a good idea. I have yet to recover to let you know.

"Recover." Like it's a friggen surgery or something. But I am telling you, holy hell is it ever a recovery process. I would imagine it is the equivalent to having someone kick you in your extra special place.

I will warn that this procedure is not, and I mean not, for shy people. If you cannot go to the doctor to have a pap smear, you will want to stay far, far, far away. There is no shyness factor here people! You let it all show.. and with emphasis on all. My advice is that if you are deciding to walk down this road, ask a lot of questions prior and go into it with an open mind. If you do not, you will come out wanting to file a lawsuit thinking that this person has severely violated your personal space.

I've been informed that it does get better with each procedure. This amazes me. I like to think that they are delusional. But now this has my curiosity peeked. Can it actually get better? I might just have to brave the wax and figure this out for myself.

Until next time..

Living in a Gheto

I've lived in apartment buildings for about four and a half years. Some were good, some were bad, and some are horrible.

I am a bit scandalous, and have kept my three lovely felines under the radar with each apartment. Really? What are they honestly going to do? I know my ladies, and they aren't going to ruin anything that a bit of paint cannot fix. And to be honest, I am not dishing out a deposit of $250 per animal. No thank you.

I enjoy apartment dwelling for several reasons: 1. I am never scared to be alone at home, because I know there are literally people all around me. 2. Whenever something goes wrong, I do not have to pay anyone to fix it because the landlord comes and deals with it. anddd 3. I do not have a full on yard to maintain. ie. mowing the lawn.

Now for the cons. I can take the constant stampede of elephants that takes place every day above me. That's one of the sacrifices I am forced to just deal with. However, I cannot take the idiots that decided to rent two apartments, one on top of the other. Unfortunately for us, our bedroom is right beside one of two stair wells.. and what do these two-apartment renters do? Run back and forth from one apartment to the other at ALL hours off the night, while slamming doors and mosh pitting down the stairs. Not to mention their kids that are still awake at 12:30am?!, that run up and down the hallway screaming. Have some freakin' common courtesy!

I cannot tell you how many times I have violently opened my door and told them to calm the hell down, and to also remind them that there are several other people who live in this apartment complex.. you know, just in case they have forgotten.

It has come to the point now where I almost beg the hubby if we could just buy a house. Of course this is out of the question with my pending tuition of $210,000, and even just deciding to buy a town house in this city could end up costing us upwards of $400,000. Yikes.

Bottom line, I just cannot take it anymore.

But lets be honest? What can we seriously do? We could call the landlord, but really, all the landlord would do is talk to the noisy buggers and tell them to keep it down.. which I know would just go in one ear and out the other. Another option? When they are all snug in their beds, I could get up at 5am and run a marathon up and down the stairs too. Perhaps that would teach them.

So for now, I guess all I can do is just deal with it. Even though I am losing countless hours of sleep per night and waking up at 2am wondering, "what the bloddy H just woke me up?"

Until next time..

Broken

Although I would say that I turned out successful and full of determination, and that my situation.. well our situation.. was probably for the best, divorce in a family is probably one of the worst things that has ever happened to me. It will always affect me. My Dad always tells me to not dwell in the past, and I do believe I get my optimistic outlook on life from him. However, when dealing with a situation like divorce, it's hard to ultimately "get over it".

Now, I should start off saying that my parents were never actually married. There was an engagement, but that is as far as it went. My parents are two very different people with two very different outlooks on life. They both had different goals and different dreams. It was inevitable that things would never work out. But I tend to still call it a "divorce," because really, it still was a splitting of a couple once in love.

At a young age, I knew way too much about custody battles than any child should have ever known about.. really, no child should ever even know about it. I knew that mom had one house, and dad had another, and that mom had us on week days and dad had us on weekends.

In grade one, we used to sit around the chalk board with big fluffy pillows and share events with our fellow class mates. I remember that I used to always lie and say that my parents were finally going to get back together and get married. It breaks my heart to remember this deliberate lie.. or more so a dream. Here was a young girl, who's only wish in the world was to have a "normal" family.

Even today, at 22, I am still affected by this splitting. My mother is married to her husband, and my father is engaged and set to get married next year. My aching thought is always, "why couldn't they have been married." It always will be.

I have always promised myself that I will never do this to my own future children. Divorce really does have an impact on children and it forces them to grow up too fast at too young of an age. A child should not have to know that, "this is mom's house and this is dad's house." Children should not see their parents feuding over vacations and holidays, and have, in the end, them be divided between two families. Too much thought goes into what is best for the parents, instead of what should be the most important thought: what is best for the child.

This is a very hard topic for me to talk about. There is so much that I want to say, but I don't want to say too much. My parents are both wonderful people. They have both taught me lessons on their own that they couldn't have done together: My father has taught me how to stand up for myself, how to be giving without expecting anything in return, and how to properly deal with certain situations; my mother has taught me how to be a strong, independent woman, how to do things without being told, and how to be kind and loving.

I am fortunate to still have fond memories of when they still were happy and together. I remember several of our family camping trips, as well as frequent road trips. I can remember laughter and smiles and compromise. My youngest sister, however, is less fortunate in these memories, and I know that it truly saddens her. Something that I will always be grateful for, is that my Dad always had his video recorder attached to his hip. He would record everything. From time to time, I like to relive those memories and watch hours of footage. It makes me sad, and happy all at the same time.

My Dad once told me that a divorce or break up is almost like a death: we will always mourn the previous union. This statement has always been true to me, because honestly, divorce is like a death; divorce is a death of a bond between two people that, in most cases, will never reconnect.

My wish by telling this story, is that people will take this to heart. I hope that anyone facing a divorce or separation with children involved will remember what is most important: the children. Remember that we are the symbol of your love for one another, even if that love has vanished.

Until next time..

For you, Mom

This post is a tad late; however, it's better than never.

My mom is one of the most strongest women I have ever known. In a house with three daughters, my mom did it all by herself. She was provider, comforter, teacher, and encourager - just to name a few. Life wasn't always roses and butterflies, but she made it work, and in the end I would say that she raised us all in the direct reflection of herself, and that makes for three wonderful women.

I admire my mom for several reasons. She worked shift work at the local mill, which consisted of her operating heavy machinery - a crane to be exact. She would wear her steel toed boots and green hard hat everyday. Something that always amazed me was that she would never sleep in on her days off, or even in between shifts.. there was just too much to do - pay bills, chop firewood, shovel the driveway, maintain a garden, mow the lawn, rake the leaves, clean the house, and run daily errands which would consist of checking the mail and grocery shopping. And even after all of this, she would still manage to make all the meals. Ohhh the meals! Mom never skimmed out on the yummness factor. She would make good old southern classic meals: fried chicken, shorthorns, soups, beans and cornbread, lasagna, hamburger casserole, the list goes on!

My mom is a man and a woman in one.. in a good way. She is strong when she needs to be, yet soft, caring and kind when we needed her. Our house was not always clean, but it was comfortable - it was a home. Mom is an avid antique collector.. and boy, do I mean AVID. Her house is creatively decorated from floor to ceiling with not an inch to spare. Everything could tell a story. Although the majority of the antiques came from yard sales, a lot were handed down to her from my great grandma - a diploma that hangs in the hallway, and my most favorite and treasured piece, a pink light fixture that lights my mom's room via dimmer switch.

Mom's style always makes me smile; she really is a romantic at heart. Her bathroom was designed to a T in lovely shades of pinks and greens - her two favorite colors. She accented it with porcelain angels and soft laces. And the focal point is her claw footed tub.. in no other color than pink! I should also mention that her house, built many, many years ago is also painted pink and surrounded by a white picket fence.

Even when mom would have to work the night shift at the mill, she would still take the time to do her hair and put on her makeup. She always looked beautiful, even if she was only rocking blue jeans and a red plaid coat with holes.. and she would always wear earrings, no matter what, whether it be simple studs or daring hoops - she always dressed for a purpose.

Growing up I did not notice what all this wonderful woman had done for us. This was our normal. I never knew what it was like to grow up in a two parent home with both parties contributing equally. And you know what? I would not have had it any other way. This wonderful woman taught me so many valuable lessons that I could not have learned if our situation would have been different. Thanks to her, I cannot only chop wood like a super woman, but I can think independently, cook up a storm, change a tire and love with all my heart. She gave so much for her three girls, and for that, I am forever grateful. My mom is hands down the best woman on this earth!

Love you! xx