Life in progress

Category Archives: Random


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The ONLY way to get rid of the hiccups (hiccoughs)

Whether you spell them “hiccups,” “hiccoughs,” or “damnit-I-wish-they’d-go-away,” they’re a plague upon the existence of mankind. They can be embarrassing: I’ve dealt with them as a receptionist at a busy magazine company, (when you have to answer the phone, they’re sure to be the loudest) and whilst buying booze. Try walking up to a cashier with a bottle of wine and the hiccups, and you’ll know what I mean.

And they’re always annoying. No matter how slowly you count to ten whilst holding your breath, they can last for hours. The moms reading this will probably remember having a hiccuping baby in their bellies… cute at first, but not at 3am. I’ve heard horror stories of people having them for days! Can you imagine?

So how do we make them stop? Everyone has their “sure-fire way” to end the hiccups, but mine is by far the best. Only one drawback – you need a friend to help. The ONLY absolutely reliable way to get rid of the hiccups is, drink an entire glass of water with your fingers in your ears. I promise, it works every single time.

If you don’t have a friend, the other way that works is, stand on your head and sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” while juggling three oranges with your feet. At least that’s what I heard.

How do you get rid of the hiccups?


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I’m reduced to acronyms!

Warning: exclamation marks and acronyms ahead. I’ve been holding this rant in for a while.

I don’t understand why or how it can be so difficult to get magnetic letters for my fridge. They’re the kind of thing you just take for granted, aren’t they? They’ve been around forever. They’re everywhere. Right?

Except they’re not! Toys ‘r’ Us has none for sale in store nor online, and haven’t since Christmas. I can’t find ones to match mine anywhere on Amazon, and the only ones I have been able to find are at Indigo Books, online, for a whopping price of $24.99. Yes, you read that right. Twenty five bucks for 40 pieces of cheap molded plastic with cheap little magnets glued to them!

It’s highway robbery! And this is what I’m reduced to!!

CAM01369WTF?!


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Something fishy may cause disease – the saga continues

On Friday, I wrote about my hot water tank and how it’s not living up to snuff. The rental company sent an iffy contractor over… rather than tell the whole story again, you can click here to read about it. Since then, I’ve been doing a tankload of research, (see what I did there?) and I’ve come up with a few interesting facts. First, there’s a knob on the mixing valve to adjust the temperature of the water coming out of it. The contractor who came to see me didn’t mention that. Fishy? Yes. BUT I’ve also discovered that these mixing valve thingies that seem to be popping up on top of water tanks without people knowing about them do in fact have a very short lifespan. It seems, (and I could be wrong, but this is what I’ve been led to believe) that the Ontario government decided that all the water coming out of the taps in all the homes shouldn’t be any higher than 49 degrees C, to prevent scalding. To combat Legionnaires disease however, the water in the tank needs to be 60C. So, the happy compromise was the mixing valves installed directly on the tank, which regulate the entire living space.

What all that means is, it’s probably going to cost me $200 to get a hot water tank fixed that I don’t know if I want. I’ve been thinking about going tankless for years. So today I called the company that installed my boiler to see what they can do and they gave me an alternative – an indirect water heater that runs right off my boiler, which, at least in the winter, I’m using anyway.

And it’s a good thing I got them in too – the run-off from my boiler was leaking and I had a puddle on the floor. A couple of boxes got wet and I’m going to have to throw out a few pillows, but nothing earthshattering was ruined. They came back and replaced the pipe for $100. And they didn’t insist on cash! What a concept!

I haven’t called the water heater rental company yet because I want to get all the information I can to make a decision whether to buy or rent, which will depend on how much it all costs. That cost will also include getting out of the contract with the rental company. When I call them, I’m still going to complain about the contractor’s lack of professionalism. I’ll keep you posted.


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My Top Ten List of Annoying Things for This Week

It seems to me that, though life in general is made up of them, there are weeks when little annoyances build up rather substantially. Or perhaps I’m just less tolerant of them. During weeks like these, it’s important to keep a sense of humour lest I end up totally bonkers due to the stress of it all. Failing the ability to laugh at my woes in the privacy of my own closet (which is where the men in the white coats SHOULD NOT LOOK FOR ME!! IGNORE THE GIGGLES COMING FROM THE CLOSET!!!) this blog enables me to share my madness with all of you. Aren’t you lucky? Here we go.

My Top Ten List of Annoying Things for This Week

  1. Having a fantastic idea for a blog post that’s so freaking good that I didn’t need to write it down.
  2. Famous last words.
  3. Getting all ready to have a shower and then realizing I need to wash my clothes first.
  4. Snow days. All one of them.
  5. Firefox crashing every evening at about 7. What’s up with that?
  6. Having a to-do list that’s longer than there are hours in a day.
  7. Meat in the fridge that won’t wait just one more day before it expires. C’mon, meat! Have a bit of decency!
  8. Not being able to get more fridge magnet letters from Toys ‘r’ Us.

    9. on the bright side, the accent is correct

  9. Chocolate. More specifically, orange Kit Kat. Why does it have to be so mouth-wateringly delicious?!
  10. Not being able to come up with ten annoying things, damnit!

So, how has your week been so far?


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Writing Random Writing

I’ve been writing. Actually, I’ve decided that it’s about time I turned this writing career of mine into an official profession, and to do that I need to be paid for what I do. To this end I’ve begun to look for writing jobs that are paid. On Friday I submitted a story for an anthology based on fairy tales, or specifically the continuation of fairy tales after the point at which the story ended as originally told. I decided to tackle Alice in Wonderland. We’ll see where that goes.

My current project is to write ten 100-word stories under the category of speculative literature. I thought that with my recent foray into writing 50-word stories, twice that length would be a breeze. I’ve written one so far, nine more to go by the end of the month. Whatever doesn’t fit into the genre (or whatever I can’t get to stretch all the way to 100 words) will likely be posted on my fiction blog.

On the novel front, I’ve decided to have it professionally edited, so the first third of it is off having that done to it. (It’s like a week at the spa!) In the meantime I’m hoping the lovely person who I’ve asked to design the cover (one who might be reading this) is well on his/her way through the reading of my novel. On my end I’m working on the eighth edit of said novel; part 3 of 3 left to go, and then I’ll work on finishing the first draft of the sequel.

With all this writing and editing, by the time A-Z April rolls around I think I’ll need to spend a week getting edited. (If this makes no sense, you weren’t reading closely enough. Go back.)

And that’s my recent news. What are you working on?


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#SoCS – Fingers and Puppy Update

Fingers. How could we live without them? I’ve spent more time wagging mine at the puppy in the last couple of months since we got him than I think I have in the last ten years at my kids. Then there’s Alex. He’s Deaf, so there’s not much communicating going on if he doesn’t have his fingers for sign language.  Back when he was at the hospital half the time I had to ask them to put his IVs in his feet, so he could still communicate. They couldn’t leave his hands unwrapped (with bandages) or he picked them off. What’s kind of amusing is that I can swear as much as I want to (or feel I need to) in front of Alex without guilt, but I don’t dare give anyone the finger.

Fingers hold rings, but I still haven’t found mine. I probably lost it in the parking lot of the grocery store. Fat chance anyone would turn it in, but I’ve asked a couple of times anyway. There’s a Dollar Store there too. Maybe I should ask in there. One can always hope.

Funny thing about fingers – I’ve been touch-typing since I was a little girl. I learned on an old Underwood with keys you could get your fingers stuck between and letters that got stuck together if you typed too fast. But I’ve never been able to play the piano. It must be a different part of the brain.  …then again, you have no idea how many typos I make in the process of typing a single sentence. It’s silly… glad I can watch the screen as I type.

The puppy finally got his cone off his head today. It’s been twelve days since his surgery. He’s looking very handsome without it. Pictures to come. Later. For now, with the cone.

 

Winston - Feb. 4/16

Winston – Feb. 4/16

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here to join in today!

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Don’t Want Windows 10? Read This

You know that annoying blue box that keeps popping up at the bottom of your screen, asking if you’re ready to switch to Windows 10 yet? Apparently that isn’t getting enough notice for Microsoft’s liking, so the company is going one step further. It turns out that Windows 10 will be a “recommended update,” which means if you haven’t turned them off in your control panel, it will download automatically when you turn your computer off. If you don’t want the Windows 10 upgrade, turn them off now.

Click this link for a full explanation and to learn how to select or turn off your automatic updates. This is particularly important if you pay extra to your internet service provider for more download space.

Please feel free to reblog this, and spread the word.


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Just Jot It January 16th – What #SoCS

What should I write about? Should it be about the puppy, who is now ripping my front door mat to shreds? (Not conducive to writing a SoCS post at all.) Or should I write about the fact that by the time this post is published I’ll be firmly ensconced in a hotel room, dreaming the night away? Yes, it’s my first night of sleep since November 29th. I’m looking forward to it.

Should I write about… how nice it is not to have to listen to the TV when I’m sitting in the living room with my Deaf son while he’s watching whatever he likes? I’m surprised when the sound is on – that’s how often it happens. He’s really the only one who watches it.

Ah, there are endless possibilities when the prompt is so open. It’s almost overwhelming, isn’t it? I sincerely hope that doesn’t sound conceited. I know I’m the one who came up with the prompt, but honestly I never have much of an idea what I’m going to write until I sit down to do it. Any more than you do. Hey, there’s a question – do you like the completely open-ended prompts like “what”? or do you prefer when it’s a more concrete one? Personally I enjoy the balance between the two.

Anyway, my ex is on his way to watch the kids for the weekend. Unless his mom told him about the puppy (hi Lucie!) he has no idea he’s looking after an extra soul this weekend. Surprise!! Hehe. Word.

The “what” prompt is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here to join in, and leave your link for everyone to see!

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To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here. Join in today! It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 16th post here at this post.

Note: If you combine SoCS and JusJoJan in one post, make sure you ping back to both this post and the Friday Reminder post.


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What we make of things

They say some things in life only have as much significance as we give to them. I suppose you could say that about everything and everyone – the things and people we find dear to us are those that have a place in our hearts. A person can have significance to us because we relate to them, or because they’re family. An item can be meaningful for its monetary value (if money in general matters to us) or for the memories it conjures.

Then there are the things we make up meanings for; a recurring dream, the sighting of a black cat, or a ring around the moon for instance. For me, for the past twenty years or so, it’s a number sequence that keeps coming up. I think of it as maybe something that pops in once in a while to say, hey, I’m still here watching over you. The number sequence is 911. It doesn’t always have to be precisely in that order – sometimes it’s a whole jumble of 1s and 9s that gets my attention. Sometimes I even have to add up the numbers in a sequence to come up with it. Like this little gem I encountered the other day:

1111119999The 1s are obvious. But then 4+7=11 and for the 9s, 18 halved is two more. So out of this I got 1111119999. I think that’s pretty cool.

By now I predict you’re either you’re intrigued or your finger is hovering above the let’s-move-on button. But before you go, let me ask you; what have you invented a significance for? Is there anything? Or do you just stick to people, objects, or even places? Or hey, feel free to let me know if you think I’m just weird.


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Missing – #SoCS

I’m cold. I miss the warmer weather. Funny, I remember missing the colder weather when it was hot outside. Those of us who enjoy spring and fall spend most of the year in a state of discontentedness.  (Why is that not a word, spellcheck?) Discontent. That’s better.

When I came up with this prompt I was thinking about how Paul Curran went missing online. It’s very easy to just up and disappear from the internet. Much easier than it is, say, to go missing from home. When you go missing from home you’ve got to find somewhere else to go. I know – I try to go missing often. Not that I want to worry anyone, but it seems the only way I can get any writing done. So I go out, to restaurants and coffee shops. But then I have to buy something. Going missing can be very expensive. And fattening too. Potentially.

It’s hard to dismiss thoughts of one who has gone missing. You might wonder where they are, how they’re doing, whether or not they’re thinking of you. And waiting – oh waiting for someone to come home is the worst, isn’t it? Even if you know where they are and that they’re on their way. I suppose it’s much easier to know such things in this age, with cell phones. Way way back when I was a girl ( 😛 ) and there were no such things as portable phones, waiting was insufferable. If someone wasn’t at home there was no way to reach them. Back then you didn’t know if they’d gone missing or not until they showed up.

My grammar sucks sometimes when I write stream of consciousness… it’s positively gone missing.

This likely misstake of a post is part of SoCS. Find it here and join in today!

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