I'm so glad you could stop by. This is my personal blog of daily life and my journey through life. You will find a strong emphasis on family and friends as well as finding my ancestors through genealogy. Unlike my other blogs this blog is more of a catch-all so any topic is fair game.
We've been online for a number of years. At first spam not the meat Spam® was not a huge problem. We quickly learned to use disposable email accounts for online activities. Lately spam has been getting through to my Yahoo email as well as being left as comments on my blogs. So I'm going to deal with this issue with a little bit of good old fashioned Canadian humour.
The good news is I am a new multi-millionaire thanks to someone from Niarobi or some other foreign place just as soon as the cheque I wrote them clears. Thanks so much guys! I will now be able to pay the high heating costs in Canada and with any luck I might even have enough left over to buy a snowmobile with a tank of gas. This is most fortunate for us and coming at a rightly time seeings as I was just about to send my husband out of our warm igloo into the vast Great White North to get fresh supplies of maple syrup, poutine and beer. Unfortunately the funds you are sending me will not get us any better television reception because we only have one channel and that is CBC. CBC airs hockey all day, every day and even though they axed the hockey night in Canada song we still sing along because that is Canada's national anthem, don't 'cha know, eh? It's a good channel though as long as the reindeer don't move our antenna too much. Ok so I'm waiting very patiently for my cheque and again thank-you so very much!
Better: I can grow male body parts even though I'm a female. Those extra body parts will surely come in handy if I sell them off to raise money for heating costs, maple syrup, poutine and more beer. Could I please get the extra strength ones? Here's what I'm figuring. I can sell them to a certain meat packing plant knowing they are Listeria free. Depending on havesting times they would be nut free as well so there would be no fear of Samonella. If I grow a lot of these extra parts I might even be able to afford a canoe!
Best: To the person spamming my blogs wanting to know if I would like to see you nakkid, thank-you for your generous invitation. I live in Canada so nakkid is only acceptable for 2 days the last week of July when there is not snow on the ground. Why on earth did you not make the connection that virtually every Canadian is born in April with the vast majority of them being born on April 1? It's because nakkid is not our national pass time, hockey is. Seriously that is a maple leaf on our flag not a fig leaf. We did have a few non-conforming Canadians who decided to have their kids on February 29 but we rounded them up and shipped them off to other countries. My theory is it is these non-conformers who have become spammers but since they don't have enough influence of Canadian humour their brains turned to mush and they became less entertaining than the US telemarketers that make daily calls to Canadian residents. Heck they aren't even as smart as telemarketers! Oh the irony, you can leave Canada but can't leave in spirit! I'd seriously love to play with the spammers but I'm focusing on Watermelon Day. July 30 is Watermelon Day in Canada. We brush off the snow from the garden and harvest that small but sweet watermelon. After 15 minutes of high feastivities including lighting a few matches we head back into our igloos where we settled down for another long season of Don Cherry.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Morning Promise
February 26, 2009
I've been up and on the go well before sunrise the past few days. Hopefully this is my body's way of telling me spring is just around the corner. I really do enjoy the early morning hours. The house is very, very quiet taking on it's own personna. I'm not quite awake enough to put the food channel on and quite often I wouldn't anyway because my husband is still sleeping. I make a large pot of tea then make my way to the computer where I will start dropping EC or start blogging depending on how fast my brain springs into action. Usually by dawn my husband is stirring while I grab the camera to take a few morning shots. Neither one of us eat breakfast. We are more the fill up on caffeine, brunch type of people. Sorry to those who think breakfast is the most important meal of the day but seriously if I ate breakfast it wouldn't stay down very long and that would make for a lousy start to the day. By the time he's ready to go the door my teapot most of 6 cups is empty, the lunch I made for him the night before is safely tucked into cloth carrying bag along with a large travel cup of either orange juice or coffee. By 7 am the house is once again very, very quite. And so another day unfolds...
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
I seriously was going to hand out some donkey awards but hey, I'm in a pretty good mood so won't. Despite being on Canada's National Do Not Call List we are still being bombarded by telemarketers. If anything the telemarketer calls seems to have worsened after registering our phone number. So I'm getting a bit perturbed at still getting telemarketer calls. What I have been doing is reporting them here. Telemarketers can be fined for each call they make after you have put your phone number on the do not call list or after you verbally tell them to remove your phone number from their list. So I figure if they aren't going to listen to the fact I don't want to listen to their sales pitch they might as well pay for my annoyance! If you get any calls in Canada from the area code 978 it is a telemarketer for sure. Do not answer the call but note the date of the call and report it. If you receive a call with the number 000-000-0000 it is a telemarketer so do the same thing. One report at a time and we can take back control of our phone lines the very lines we pay for to keep in touch with family and friends not the lines we pay for to have someone give us a sales pitch at goodness knows what hours of the day. Sign up to the National Do Not Call List then report each and every unsolicited call you get!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Jack Frost
February 24, 2009
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Bald Headed Eagles
February 24, 2009
I was up well before dawn this morning. As dawn broke there was a lot of fog that resulted in a heavy coating of frost on everything. The sun danced on the frost turning the trees into a sparkling delight. As I watched the water I spotted the bald eagle pair that frequents our area. They have a nest a few kilometres north of us so we see them almost daily. They are beautiful birds, very impressive! One day we hope to see a young one join the parents on their daily visits.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Mr. Snowman
February 21, 2009
The kids were home for this past weekend. My husband asked our son-in-law if he would mind shoveling the walk. Well oldest grandbaby wanted to go outside with Daddy so we bundled her up and sent her out the door. They were out there for awhile while dinner was cooking. They came in cold and tired ready for the home made pizzas we were having for dinner. I looked out the window and there he was, a beautiful snowman made by grandbaby and her Daddy! It has been awhile since a snowman has graced our front lawn. I think he looks pretty good, don't you?
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
My husband and I make a good team. He is very trusting and I'm not so much so. He learns from me and I learn from him so it really does balance out. Back in October I made a purchase on eBay and by mid November part of the order showed up with excuses for the other. By December I realized this person was never going to send the balance (buckwheat honey) so I left a negative. Now that is with a heavy heart. You see we have been on eBay for a heck of a long time and we have dealt with a lot of people both as buyers and sellers. We take pride in our 100% feedback. Several emails to the seller went unanswered. Then I left a negative and suddenly the seller was interested in talking to me so reimbursed my money for that item then set up a deal where they would send the missing item. That was late December. Long story short is the item finally arrived mid February, almost 4 months after I paid for it. So being honest, I went back to PayPal to pay for it which I did. Then I went over to eBay to leave a comment that this transaction had been settled. Wow oh wow!
I asked my husband's opinion of what I was seeing, over 20 negatives for this seller in 1 month! What bothers me more is my husband saw the dishonesty before I did. Those negatives were not there when I bought the product. What was very noticeable was not one item was for more than $7. Basically with shipping that would be under $15 so most buyers would never complain and just chuck it up as a small amount of money lost. These folks even aligned themselves with a religious group. Talk about a good scam. See buyers won't complain unless the amount lost is over a certain amount yet the seller ends up with the money and the buyer ends up with nothing.
My husband and I compliment each other nicely. For most purposes the roles are fairly well defined and for those times such as just mentioned it is surprising how clearly we can see the other side of the coin. This clarity is something that when shared is a way of giving a different perspective. That is a blessing. Being the victim of dishonesty is also a blessing. It serves as a reminder that even in good there is bad. There are those who will use whatever angle they can to relieve you of your hard earned dollars. Being aware of this type of dishonesty means you are less likely to be a victim in future. That is a blessing!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Say What?January 15, 2009It always amazes me some of the things we see while on vacation. We stopped to check out the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino the last day of our vacation on our way to the airport. Of course we had to take a look at the pools and upper cabana areas. Looking out from the upper cabana area I spotted the drive through smoke shop. Somehow I found this rather humorous but sad! People are so lazy that they don't even want to get out of their vehicles for cigarettes? They would rather sit in line smelling exhaust just to get their cigarettes? Don't they realize how much carbon dioxide they are emitting by this one act of shear laziness? Honestly!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Reflections
January 14, 2009
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Mother's Love
February 15, 2009
Today is Family Day in Canada and is a statutory holiday in three Canadian provinces - Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Family Day falls on the third Monday of February. It is a celebration of the importance of families and family life to people and their communities. Pictured is our baby with oldest grandbaby and soon to be born youngest grandbaby in honour of the meaning of Family Day.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
It has been an interesting and stressful week to say the least and this week is starting out just as stressful. The blessing that has been most prominent this week has been faith. Faith will continue to get us through the next couple of days as well. Faith is a true blessing!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Sorry everyone, I am just numb right now. Yesterday we got the call of a death in the family so there has been a lot of communication going back and forth. We will attend visitation tonight and the funeral tomorrow. Then today we get a call from a very good friend who's mother just passed away. We will be at her visitation on Sunday and funeral Monday. Our condolences, thoughts and prayers go out to each of their families as they go through this necessary journey in life.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Black Swan
Lake Mirror Park (Lakeland, Florida)
January 14, 2009
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Hollis Park (Lakeland, Florida)
January 14, 2009
Our friends took us sightseeing in the Lakeland, Florida area. We stopped for a stroll through Hollis Park. This is a 1.2 acre park that was donated to the city of Lakeland. The day was warm as the sun kissed our skin while soaking in the beautiful surroundings of the park. This is a must stop at attraction when in the Lakeland, Florida area!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Ice on the Water
February 8, 2009
I have several more vacation pictures to share with you but the water was so beautiful looking yesterday I thought I would sneak this picture of ice on the water in. This was our view of the water yesterday. I couldn't help but gaze out the window. Isn't it just gorgeous?
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
The past week started with a healthy dose of annoyance. I author five blogs and believe me I try to do everything humanly possible to keep my readers happy. That means there is a fair amount of behind the scenes work that goes on to ensure my readers have an enjoyable experience when they visit. The end part of the week one of the advertisement widgets (Adgitizer) went down. Now that wasn't too bad at first and it was only showing an ad for their site. By Monday it was apparent the widget was not coming up and Tuesday I removed it from the blogs. Now this is both annoying and aggravating because the code has to be removed. Wednesday the site came back up so I added back the code aka more work behind the scenes. By Wednesday night it was acting up again except this time instead of their advertisement the widgets were showing service unavailable in huge, ugly bold letters. I am really particular about my blogs and quite frankly this is just not acceptable to me as far as blog design. I was annoyed to no end. This annoyance spurred me into action! That ended up being a blessing!
This annoyance caused me to take a very good look at the advertising on each blog, what was working and what wasn't working. It is important to me that I control what is being shown on my blogs. For that reason I do not like anything where someone else has the control over ads, images or widgets so am rather picky that way. I removed every advertiser that was not performing according to the blog so advertisers are now customized to each particular blog. Why should I give them a spot on my blogs when all they are doing is getting free advertising? I removed the your ad here advertising from two of my blogs and one never had it. These ads remain on two of my blogs but their days are numbered. I added some very blog specific advertising to fit the them of each blog. These are ads that I can determine content and change as desired depending on what I'm blogging about at the time so I think it will make for a nicer reader experience. Out of annoyance I have been able to define in finer detail exactly what I want as far as the blogs. I was able to tweak to what I think is a sleeker advertising design. This annoyance helped me realize that I am not willing to compromise my values as a blogger. It clearly showed me that I could be rather brutal in removing elements that I felt were not benefitting my blogs and I feel my blogs are better for this. So annoyance became a blessing!
Happy BYBS,
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Joker Marchant Stadium
January 14, 2009
The next sightseeing trip we stopped at Joker Marchant Stadium again. They were really nice and let us in to take pictures. My husband was elated so took a lot of pictures. It was a bright, sunny and warm day offsetting the gorgeous setting of the stadium. The ball diamond was simply beautiful! They had recently put all new seats in the stadium which was quite impressive. Everything was so neat and clean looking. Anyone who has been to sports games can attest to the fact that they are anything but neat and clean after a game. This is a gorgeous stadium to while away a few hours watching a game! Hopefully there will be a game we can take in our next visit.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Joker Marchant Stadium
January 12, 2009
Back to our Florida vacation. Our friends took us touring around the Lakeland, Florida area. One of the stops was at Joker Marchant Stadium, Florida home to the Detroit Tigers. The first day we stopped only for pictures of the outside but later in the week we went back to take pictures of inside the stadium. It was quite impressive and very much designed like Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Now this brings up a very good point about our traveling.
My husband is into sports especially golf and he is likely the biggest Detroit Redwings fan you have ever met. His sports room is decorated in mainly Redwing collectibles. He would go over and above to see the Wings play! We made one trip to Montréal just to watch them play. I was elated because I had the opportunity to do some much needed genealogy research at the Salle Gagnon. A side trip while vacationing in Las Vegas was to Phoenix, Arizona to watch a Wings game. Then there was the Florida vacation where we went to a football game, the football games we get to each year in New York and the various sports stadiums we manage to get to each year. It is amazing the number of stadiums we have had the opportunity to see!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
In Flight
January 13, 2009
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Oh Sure!
February 2, 2009
Six more weeks of winter as predicted by those scaredycat groundhogs. You've got to be kidding! Now where is my groundhog stew recipe? Or I could braise them in a lovely maple syrup glaze [evil laughing!]
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
