C'mon!!! You know you wanna!

I'm trying to get a team together for this one too.
Looks like fun!

Edit:  We're actually going to do THIS Colour Me Rad Run in support of Special Olympics instead. (also it's at Darien Lake instead of downtown  Buffalo)

Bring it on!

I will be ready!  I am a Warrior!

So excited!

halfway there...

Turn your face to the sun, and the shadows fall behind you.

~Maori proverb

I have a love/hate relationship both Pigeon Pose and Double Pigeon Pose.
I just plain hate Frog Pose.

It's lunchtime somewhere in the world.

So far today,

• I have almost knocked myself out with a door. The mechanism on a normally VERY heavy door was broken, I yoinked with typical force and KA-POW. Either that or my workouts are really paying off. No. really! That is totally what happened.
• I have a PR crisis on my hands. Oy Vey! The emails!
• I found out via the grapevine that people are saying I am responsible for getting someone fired. Seriously? 0.o
• I have a headache. Might be door related.
• I’m on my umpteenth coffee because: I have almost knocked myself out with a door, I Have a PR crisis on my hands, I found out via the grapevine that people are saying I am responsible for getting someone fired, and I have a headache.

How’s your Tuesday so far?

Fourteen is too young

The daughter of some friends died last night after a two year battle with brain cancer.
She was 14.
Rest in peace little one.

Meatless Monday’s DCP

Whether it’s a Meatless Monday, or Meatless Every Day, it is nonetheless Monday and time for a DCP¹

5 Good Things About Today
1. One day closer to the weekend!
2. I have no meetings scheduled for today
3. As it is budget planning season – I get to shut my office door, turn my heater up, listen to my music, and not be bothered.
4. Sunshine!! Sort of. Sometimes.
5. I saw deer this morning!

3 Things I Did Well
1. Procrastinate
2. Got up! (I did it well once the second alarm went off, and the dog jumped on the bed)
3. Not freak out too badly when I found the gift Kitty left me. I’m impressed actually! Not too shabby for an aged indoor pampered furball

2 Things I Look Forward To
1. My treadmill time with my new playlist
2. Mitch’s yoga class tonight

A bit of cognitive reframing therapy for this charming Monday. As revolting as it may be, I challenge all y’alls to do this!

So, back to the meatless thing…

Oh I could never be a vegetarian is what I commonly hear. Baby steps! If you think about it, some of what you eat might already be considered vegetarian (think mac n cheese, spaghetti marinara, veggie topped pizza)

Give it a try once a week and when you got that down go fer MOAR (slowly). It’s good for you! It’s good for the environment! And believe me the animals will appreciate not being slaughtered.
I still meet with some occasional grumbling and resistance but in our house there are always two things on the menu – Take it, and Leave it!²

• Meatless Monday
• Heart & Stroke Veggie recipes
• Vegetarian Resource Page
• Oh She Glows: An awesome vegan blog – great recipes (and drool-worthy photography)

In other news

• Beets are disgusting no matter what colour they are. Fact: gold beets just as gross as red ones.
• Learning to read music and play my harp is very hard and is making me cry - especially being surrounded by people who keep telling me it’s easy and I’m doing great. No it isn’t, and no, I’m not

¹ Disgustingly Cheerful Post – the kind of stuff that’ll make you wanna puke rainbows ’n shit buttercups.

² I’m not totally evil – they can always have a peanut butter sammich … which … just … happens … to … also … be vegetarian. HA! Old age and treachery wins again.

 

TGIF

Hey Friday,

Where ya been?  I sure have missed you.

Plans for the weekend include:
- redoing my workout playlists [thanks iPod >:(  ]


Whatever your plans... enjoy!

Love, and Cupcakes, Me

Tuesday's child is full of grace...

 

He respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody who can spell Tuesday, even if he doesn't spell it right.
 ~A. A. Milne quotes (English Humorist, creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, 1882-1956)
 

photo credit: S. Gabriel

Happy Family Day!

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.

~Erma Bombeck

Happy Family Day*

* For those outside of certain Canadian Provinces – yes, that is a real holiday, apparently we "needed" a break so they threw one in.

I'm not complainng mind you, especially since work threw in an extra day! I get a 4 Day Weekend! Huzzah! Hallelujah! The laundry might actually get done. Ahahahaha no, just kidding!

Our plans are weather dependant – if it is a blustery feels like -27C (that’s a balmy -17F for you USAers) we’ll probably opt for indoor activities like eating, drinking, and arguing about music and politics. If it’s warmer we’ll venture out into the snow - maybe look for animal tracks in the woods.

The deer were pretty active last night; we’ve got little hoofy prints everywhere! Did either my ferocious were-beast, or vicious couch-cougar, alert me to their presence? No, no they did not, however they did make sure I got up in time for breakfast (no they did not start the coffee…)

To whoever invented fantasy, redwood trees, and apple pie for breakfast: well done.

~Dr. SunWolf

Go enjoy you day!

A Cautionary Tale

The liquor was spilled on the barroom floor
And the bar was closed for the night.
The little mouse crept from his hole in the wall
Into the pale moonlight.

He lapped up the liquor on the barroom floor
And back on his haunches he sat.
And all night long, you could hear him scream
"Bring on that goddamn cat!"
~ Author Unknown

Be careful out there tonight kids!

Half-Priced Chocolate Day

Happy Half-Priced Chocolate Day! (also Friday!)

I got turfed out of the house yesterday and forced to go to the gym as I’d become “intolerable” – “better you be bitching about being in pain than just plain bitching” – tis true! I admit it – I hate being inactive; especially mandatory inactivity*. My foot has healed well-enough that I am no longer inclined to listen to medical advice. I do promise to go slow so that my doc won’t smack me upside the head and give me that lecture again.

In other news:
The government continues to piss me off with its Big Brother-like antics and Big Corporate Donors before the Environment attitude.
I still hate Excel 2010
Not much else to report. (Thankfully!)


* I suffer from basic orneriness syndrome (BOS); I don’t do well with being told to do things (or not do things as the case in point). Tragically, this is a hereditary condition inherited by me kidlets. That, or my mother’s curse of “May you have 10 children just like you” came to partial fruition.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day

I'm not a fan of this manipulative commercial guilt-driven holiday.  If you love someone, tell them everyday.

Instead of romance how about we "love" everyone, or if "love" is too hard, lets just not hate.

Give a thought to your heart as well... February is Heart Health Month.  Get off the couch, get off the internet, go out and do something health for your heart! ... and while you're at it - Eat a vegetable or two.

Keep your heart healthy: Canada Heart and Stroke Foundation



Photo credit: http://wallpaperswide.com/heart_in_snow-wallpapers.html

Lady in waiting

I don’t know what it is about February; perhaps I’ve had enough of winter. Cabin fever? I want to go! Go! Go! Go! But I feel as though there is something holding me back. If I could identify what that something was I’d shake it off and be gone, but it remains elusive; just beyond my conscious efforts to identify it.

It’s a time of year where I’m feeling a certain ennui . Discontent. Languor. Worldweariness.

Friends pop off to southern climes for all-inclusive luxury vacations – am I jealous? Not really. The kind of beaches I like are the deserted fall and winter beaches devoid of sun-worshipers and noise. I prefer to be alone with the sea birds and the surf.

Gardening catalogs have started arriving – Every year I promise myself that this is the year that I’ll start that garden, but I never do. My thumb is not as green as my soul.

New spring clothes have begun arriving in the shops, but we are months away from sleeveless blouse and capris weather; now is the time of wet boots and mud.

Deer tracks are everywhere and the coyote tracks are never far either. The great horned owls can be heard in the woods.

And I am waiting for some kind of a start signal.

Looking

Looking behind I am filled with gratitude. Looking forward I am filled with vision. Looking upwards I am filled with strength. Looking within I discover peace.

~Quero Apache Prayer

We have come to be danced

We have come to be danced
Not the pretty dance
Not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance
But the claw our way back into the belly
Of the sacred, sensual animal dance
The unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance
The holding the precious moment in the palms
Of our hands and feet dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance
But the wring the sadness from our skin dance
The blow the chip off our shoulder dance.
The slap the apology from our posture dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the monkey see, monkey do dance
One two dance like you
One two three, dance like me dance
but the grave robber, tomb stalker
Tearing scabs and scars open dance
The rub the rhythm raw against our soul dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the nice, invisible, self-conscious shuffle
But the matted hair flying, voodoo mama
Shaman shakin’ ancient bones dance
The strip us from our casings, return our wings
Sharpen our claws and tongues dance
The shed dead cells and slip into
The luminous skin of love dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance
But the meeting of the trinity, the body breath and beat dance
The shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
The mother may I?
Yes you may take 10 giant leaps dance
The olly olly oxen free free free dance
The everyone can come to our heaven dance.

We have come to be danced
Where the kingdom’s collide
In the cathedral of flesh
To burn back into the light
To unravel, to play, to fly, to pray
To root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced

WE HAVE COME.


by Jewel Mathieson

Photo credit: NASA (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16682)

Fix it...

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.

~Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés

David Suzuki Foundation: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/
Green Ideas Network: http://www.greenideasnetwork.org/
Ontario Foodland: http://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/english/index.html (buy local!)
Chooseveg.ca: http://www.chooseveg.ca/animal-organizations-canada.asp

start. please.

Snow. We haz it.

The snow. It fell. Like it does in winter, in Canada.
As the blizzard hit in the morning and was predicted to worsen all day  => =>   Snow Day!

We broke records for a single day snow fall, and we got the most snow in Ontario (or Southern Ontario - news happened pre-coffee)
We didn't lose power - Yay!
They've plowed our street - *lifting jaw up off the floor*
We've dug out ... and the sun is shining.

http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-destructive-canada-oil-sands-2012-10?op=1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/06/tunnel-solar-belgium-rail

I know which I'd prefer.

Be content to progress in slow steps until you have legs to run and wings with which to fly.

~Padre Pio

oops!
Happy New Year!
Happy Groundhog Day! (has anyone ever caught on to the fact that it'll be Spring in 6 weeks anyways? hmm? No? Okay)
Happy Imbolc!
and happy a-couple-of-full-moons

I think I'm caught up now...