A Surreal Weekend

It has been an oddly surreal weekend.   A very enjoyable one to be sure,  but surreal none the less. It started on Tuesday night while talking with tamile and roswyne.   The idea came up of going to Fargo for the weekend.   It was just a random trip or anything the was a charity fundraiser being hosted by the same group that puts on one of our favorite annual conventions,  Corecon House the person it was for has long been a major fixture of the convention and is one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. He has also been battling cancer,  which as it turns out is a very costly endeavor in the United States (more on that later)


So planning the trip turned into something of a cluster fuck.   Which I guess in a lot of ways is why I don't like to plan trips at the last minute. It started out as a day trip four hours down spend the day and the  four hours back.   For the record I hate trips like that.   You spend more time driven then you do at the place you are driving too.   It seems wasteful and like stupid idea to me. So I started exploring a few options for crash space. With little to no effort found crash space for Friday and Saturday.   Roswyne was comfortable. Being down that long or being tied to our schedule, so she made other plans.   I tried to adjust what I had started to set up to accommodate what she needed.   Which didn't work out at all.   So rather than  taking one car that could easily have fit 5 people we traveled in separate cars and honestly hardly saw each other over the course if the weekend. In the end I guess it wasn’t to big of a deal one way or the other. By all reports she had a good time and I had a good time, which in the end is the important part.


In our car was tamile,  naivara and myself.   Now normally naivara suffers from a condition jokingly called carcolypse,  you put her in a moving car at highway speeds and she is asleep.   That didn't happen  on the drive down which lead to one of the better discussions the three of us have had since our break up as a trouple. The three of us talked about a lot of different things and I think we were able to clear the air on a lot of things.  tamile and I also found a fair amount of time to talk this weekend as well. I think it put the two of us back on a better track for our relationship in a time that we really needed it.  Honestly I think tamile and I need to make a point of taking car trips of a minimum of 4 hours on a regular basis.  We both tend to talk with each other really well and open up while trapped in a car moving over 100 kilometers per hour.


The point behind the trip like I mentioned was to help support friend who is undergoing treatment for cancer.  Now this wasn’t for moral support, this was about financial support to help cover the cost of his care.  I heard a few numbers tossed around over the weekend about exactly what his treatment was costing.  All of the numbers seem to me to be ridiculously high (1 quote went as high as half a million), but I have been assured by Americans who are familiar with the system that they are certainly within the realm of possibility.  As a Canadian and someone who has grown up with socialized medicine this completely boggles my mind.  Now thankfully in my friend’s case he does have medical insurance coverage.  I don’t know to what extent it will be covered it wasn’t really any of my business.


Another friend who I saw while down there had also just undergone a major medical incident and had spent two weeks in intensive care.  She had no coverage, so she is going to have to pay for that all out of her own pocket as I understand the American system.  The cost of that stay is going to follow her around forever.  The amount of money it would cost for a two week stay in an IC unit up in the hundreds of thousands am sure.  


I did some quick googling and they even have a special term for this type of debt “Medical Debt”   The link will take you to the Wikipedia page that discusses the term.  After this weekend I don’t think I have ever been more thankful to be a Canadian.  Sure we might have long wait times to see a doctor at the emergency room, but I would rather sit around for 8 to 10 plus hours to see a doctor then have to work for the rest of my life to pay of the debt that was incurred because of the visit.


If you are reading this and would like to help out my friend house please visit House Is Where the Heart Is  page to make a donation. 

Goals for 2016

I don't like to make resolutions for the year ahead.  I much prefer to think of them as goals for the new year. 

With that in mind I also make sure that they are SMART goals.  If you are not familiar with the idea of a SMART goal here ia a quick primer

Specific (Goals must be clear and unambiguous) 

Measurable (Results must be able to be measured in some way, for example, the number of products sold each week, or the percent completion)

Attainable (Goals must be realistic and attainable by the average employee)

Relevant (Goals must relate to your organization's vision and mission) 

Time-bound (Goals must have definite starting and ending points, and a fixed duration)

I'll be keep these in mind as I write my own goals for 2016.  Looking at the list means of each letter you can see that they were intended for a group or organization but that doesn't make them any less valuable to an individuals goals.

Health:

• Complete Zombies Run couch to 5k:

 This is to be completed by tamile's birthday June 20th.  It will go a long way towards my own journey of health. Completing this has also been a long time goal for me as well, and it is one that I will see completed at long last this year.

•  Build to a weekly exercise routine

 I find that I easily fall in a routine that lacks exercise.  So much of my life and the things I enjoy are sedentary that I need to work to actively make physically activity apart of my daily / weekly routine.  By January 16th I will post a weekly schedule that will show my intended out routine.  Then by the end of January I'll post a follow up to show how I've been doing on it.

Personal:

• Get my drivers license.

I've had my beginner's license for a long time at this point and it is time I get off my ass and be able to drive on my own.  Far to often there are things I miss out on because of my inability to drive myself to them.

• Lifestyle Skills  and Power Exchange

There are a number of different skills that fall in to the kink lifestyle that I have dabbled in.  I really want to take the time to learn to make use of these skills in more in-depth.  I want to be able to use them in scenes at will, without having to take the time to for example look through a book as I'm working. 

An important part of those lifestyle skills include developing a relationship with someone to whom I can have an on going power exchange relationship.  I have parts of that style of relationship with two people at the moment but know that it could be so much more.

Professional:

• Clear attendance record at work.

 This is a simple one.  All I need to do is not miss work and it will take care of itself.

•  Successfully launch and fulfill Casting KickStarter

 This one is far more complex then the last one.  It would take many posts to explain it all and everything that is required.

• Complete test and prototyping for Gnome Care and continue working on other games

 If I want to be successful in the world of game design I need to always be working on projects.  It isn't enough to just make a single game and then start on the next one.  I need always be working on the next game, the next project.

Spiritual:

• Develop a regular meditation practice

 A few times over the last couple of years I have started to try and set up a meditation practice.  The times I have started the practice I have very much enjoyed the experience and felt better for it.  I want to be able to develop a practice that allows me to tap into that experience.

Anyways those are my goals for 2016.  It took me longer to post them then I had intended, but they were up and posted before the end of the first week.  So I'm happy with that accomplishment.  

A life time of Star Wars

Disney World, 1989, age: 14,
the woman in the photo is my grandmother

First off there are no risks of spoilers here I haven't seen the movie yet and I've also stopped reading anything Star Wars related on the internet.

Star Wars has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  When the first movie came out on May 25, 1977 I was a year and half old.  The story I've always been told by my mom is that I was taken to the first movie at the driven in because my mom couldn't find a babysitter.  I have absolutely no memory of this at all, but I would like to imagine that I was spell bound staring at the screen watching the bright flashes of light flash a cross the screen with each blast shot.

Of course I realize that as a 1 and half year old I likely couldn't even see the screen and I certainly had no concept of what was happening in the movie.  What I would have known is that my mom was excited and happy.  Knowing what I know of kids that likely would have made me happy as well.  Either way it is mostly speculation the only fact I can confirm is that I was there.  The rest of the movies in the original serious I remember seeing in theaters as well.  Although I don't remember much about them personally.  I do recall seeing Return of the Jedi at Grant Park theater with my neighbor, although I have no clue why I would have seen it with him.

Star Wars toys fueled my imagination easily as much any of my other toys.  I remember grand adventures played out in my backyard where the falcon would land in the grass and my action figures would battle it out in what to them was waist high grass.  It went to encourage me to start reading other adventure books, and guild my friends through adventures of our own.

In many ways it shaped the person I am today.  A love of Star Wars lead to a love of Science fiction in general.  From that I discouvered role-playing games and in turn fandom.  There isn't a day that goes by in my life when I don't interact with someone I might because of my time in Fandom.  Granted that isn't to hard to say since I met my wife through fandom :)

by the time the second three movies that came out I had two daughters that I could bring along with me and introduce to the world of Star Wars.  Of course they had already seen the movies we owned the VHS we were savages.  But the thought of reading the scroll at the start of the Phantom Menace always brings a smile to my face.  Some jerk in the theater "shhhh" us as we were reading quietly to hear.  The people around us were so offended by his action that they started reading along with us.

Now with the new movies about to start I'm happy to say that I have a ticket in had for my grandson and I can't wait to take him to see it this Sunday.

Thank you George Lucas for bring a universe to life and having such a huge impact on my life.

A long over due update.

Wow, it feels like forever since I've written anything here.  That likely is because it has been forever since I've written anything here.  At first I had what I thought was a good reason, but that went away about a month and a half ago when I told naivara about the new girlfriend Roswyne Remember that cute red had I met at one of our house parties back in September.  Well She has become my girlfriend, I would say that has been going really well over all.  We talk a lot and spend a ton of time together, while both still are left wanting even more time together.

Anyways it is what it is and the time away from blogging is time away from blogging.  It certainly is something that I have missed doing on a more regular basis.  My intent is for this to be the first of a number of regular posts.Yes if you've read the blog for any amount of time you will know that this isn't the first time I've said something like that, and to be sure it won't be the last time I say it either.

Anyways here are some quick high level updates to get everyone caught up on my universe.

• Still happily married to tamile
• Have a wonderful new girlfriend Roswyne
• Effects of Weight loss surgery continue to be felt.  As of my last weigh in I'm currently at 300.5lbs.  That is a hundred pounds lost since July when I started the boost diet.
• I've recently switched from iPhone to Android for my cell phone.
• I've gone up to full time hours as of today.  (Not sure how I feel about this yet, other then that it needed to be done.)
• I'm getting a ton more driving in, and getting closer and closer to feeling confident enough to go for my license.

Anyways I guess that is enough for now, I'm sure there will be other posts in the coming days exploring different things.

The good, the bad, the ugly and a question

It has been an eventful weekend to say the least.  I'm truly glad it turned out the way it did as it is the last weekend before I return to work.  With the Doctors ok I'll be back on tomorrow Tuesday.  On one hand over all I'm not thrilled to be going back.  I'm enjoying the time at home working with tamile, getting stuff done around the house, and even doing some writing.  That being said I also know it is important that I get back in to the regular routine of working a daily job.

So lets start with the good of this post.  This Friday after running errands and a meeting we spent the evening babysitting two of the grandkids.  It was the two grandkids that we don't see as often so it was a lot of fun.  The four of us played, cuddled and watched a bit of TV.  tamile took care of putting the older one to bed and I took care of putting the baby to bed.   It was only willpower that kept me awake through the process.  We were going to offer to keep them over night but they came by early to pick the kids up.

The weekend continued to be good Saturday afternoon was spent at a local game store running a demo of a new game called Nefarious.  It was a pretty good game and I will likely write a review of it in the next few days.  That evening was when the real fun began.  tamile and I hosted our first party since June.

In the past we have regularly hosted kink focused parties.  Basically once a month we invite over friends to hang out, chat, have a few drinks, share our kinks with each other, and even demonstrate a few kinky things to the room.  We tried a couple of things differently this time around.  We invited less people so those who did attend had more space.  It made for a way more intimate evening. Everyone who came out played in some way or another, which I am pretty sure is a first.  tamile and I started off the evening with a great flogging scene, it had been to long since we did that..  Our Brandon family followed up with their own impact play scene.  A few people did some electro play,  I got to have a small electro play scene with a regular attendee and then followed it up with an electro play and impact play with a first timer to our parties.  A very cute (Currently red headed) woman the scene was really good and fun to play with.    All in all it was a great night.  One of the more enjoyable parts was a sitting four people across our three person couch.  I had tamile pressed into me on one side and the red head on the other.  It was a rough place to be sitting for sure with both of them cuddling up into me.  Somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning the last of the guests left.

Sunday continued to be good our home based gaming group met and started a new adventure for the first time since last April.  It was a pretty good session all.  There wasn't a lot of things happening in it, but everyone had fun and we got the adventure started.

Now for the bad is that the weekend is nearly over.

Last but not least the ugly.  I normally wear a kilt to kink events.  tamile makes a wonderful cargo kilt that are awesome to wear and comfortable as hell.  I have two wonderful kilts that she made and to be honest they are far from ugly.  What is ugly is they they don't fit anymore.  I can't say that this is a bad thing but at the same time I can't call it a good thing either.  Which is what makes it ugly?  I want to be happy and excited by them not fitting but it also means I am without a cargo kilt for a while.

Finally the question; I have been only posting this blog for a while now and I was reminded today that I have a couple of other blogs.  Ones that are specifically focused on gaming and the other one focused on Kink.  Should I go back to posting about those other topics specifically to those other blogs and try and generate more content or should I just keep posting everything to this one?

Food As Reward

The day I was out walking with tamile and we started talking a little bit about what exactly food is to us and how we see it.  One of the things the we realized as we talked was that we both see food as a reward.  In seconds as we talked both of us rattled off a number of examples where we rewarded ourselves with food for a job well done.

• A new job? lets celebrate by going out to a restaurant.
• Kids Birthday? lets have the family over for dinner & cake.
• The kids sports team did well? Then lets get the Ice-Cream on the way home.

I'm pretty sure that you get the idea. Not really sure what the origin of this behaviour is but it seems  to be pretty consistent across most of the people I know.   More then once I've seen a coach with the whole sports team out for Slurpees or Ice Cream.

We need to get away from this.  Why should food be used as a reward?  I guess in a lot of ways it is just easy.  Food is everywhere so that makes it super easy to get and give as a reward. With a little extra effort a better reward shouldn't be to hard to come up with.

• A new job? What about getting some new clothes or something cool to have with you at the job.  Like some kind of desk sitter.
• Kids Birthday? Have the family over for gifts and a visit.  Skip the cake, it is a tradition that isn't really needed.  A quick bit of Google-Fu says cakes come from around the 1400s in Germany.   Maybe we need to change just how we do cakes, Maybe there is some type of better option.  I'm not to sure what it is but I do want to try and figure it out.  Maybe just skip the icing?
• Sports team did well?  Save the money you would have used on ice cream and get them something they can you use for the next game.  Maybe some better equipment, help pay for team photos, have Gatorade on hand for the next game (Sure it is food, but at least it is good you)

Anyways hopefully this will at least give you something to think about.

I was going to say that I hoped this post gave you some "Food for Thought" but I thought better of it.

There is a quote I found that is apparently attributed to Drew Carey;

"Eating crappy food isn't a reward, 

it is a punishment"

Its a whole new world!

The subject should be sung like it was a lyric from Aladdin.  I don't know if it should be sung so cheerfully but overall it seems true.  Since my last post on June 2nd everything has changed and tomorrow it will begin to change even more.  There are a lot of different ways I could post this and I really don't know how to do it.  Some I'm just going to throw it all out there and move on.  I think I want to share it more as a personal record of everything that has happened.

• There was a massive fight between tamile and naviara, a lot of things were said and not said.  At the end of the fight tamile informed me that she was with drawn her submission to me.  There were a lot of other things said that night, none that I will share or repeat and some that I wish I could forget.  After that things seemed to return to some type of new normal.
• A few days  later something happened with naviara, out of respect for her I won't go in to details.  I will say it was not the first time it had happened, in the end for the health those involved it had to be the last time it happened with us.  I choose to the end my 5 year relationship with naviara.  
• And we have started to foster a dog on top of both of those.

So basically everything I've been working on for the last five years feels like it is gone. I have some hope that tamile will agree to submission again, but I honestly have no clue if she will. Apparently she plans to continue to bottom with me but who knows if that will happen.  Publicly she plans to be submissive but I have no clue how that will play out either.

Anyways that was my last month, I've made it pretty clear that I intend to continue in the lifestyle.  I don't know how it will play out or what it will look like, honestly I wish I did it would make the world a lot easier.  Who the hell wants an easy life anyways?  A part from that things are pretty solid between tamile and I.

Before I end this post let me comment on breaking up.  It sucks, but I believe it is the right thing sand for the best, I have no doubt about that.  Even with that being said it doesn't make it easy.  I've never been through a break up with someone who I had been with for so long.  So many of our things and belongings are intermingled and will need to be sorted out.  Not to mention all the emotions that go along with it as we sort things out.  It will be a timely process, one that will likely be made worse by what I have coming in the next couple of weeks, the boost diet.

Anyways it is nearly midnight and I need to think about sleep.

Weekend of Rest

It was the last weekend before the insanity begins.  For the most part it was a pretty good and relaxing weekend.  We had our gaming group over on Friday night and for the first time we tried out Savage Worlds. The Saturday we had our monthly MAsT (Masters and slaves Together) meeting. Finally Sunday was spent doing things around the house and ended with the kids coming over for dinner and a visit to help celebrate mothers day. Three major events all of which were very different. All in all I'd say it was a very successful weekend.

Lets start with Friday; it had been a long day at work one that as normal I was sure was never going to end.  Thankfully in the end it ended like it always does.  That evening we used pre-generated characters, their mission was to protect Samuel Clemens while he traveled to give a special.  All in all the game was more then a little on the slow side for what I had intended to run.  I was surprised to learn that it had been run as a convention game in the past.  There wasn't enough to grab the players attention right from the start.  In the end we called the game early but made it far enough to show me that I really enjoyed the system and also the setting.

Sadly for me the night didn't end after the game.  I couldn't for the life of me convince myself that I should go to sleep.  In the end I was awake until about 4 in the morning.

Saturday we did a bunch of puttering around but the main event of the day was our monthly MAsT meeting.  tamile, naviara and I were presenting on Poly and Power Exchange.  We talked about a lot of different aspects of our life and how things work in our household. The rituals and rules that the ladies have as well as the punishment dynamic.  Those attending the discussion seemed to get a lot out of it.  They asked a number of hard questions, and we as a trouple really opened ourselves up to the audience and shared somethings really close to the heart and personal.   I was really honoured at at the end when a number of people came forward and thanks us all for sharing what we did.

Anyways its time for bed at this point.  I want to close by saying that Sunday was really nice and a great way to spend time with family.

I hope you enjoyed a post that wasn't about weightloss

Advice

In the mundane life I've been super busy with work.  The company decided to cross train a number of people from my department in to a completely different area.  We are still doing what we used to do but now we do more as well.  Over all from a business point of view I understand it, and can see how it will lead to less people having to be transferred from one department to another.That being said this new area isn't easy.  There are a lot of different situations that have to be remembered, and a lot of cases where if one thing happens then three of other things need to be remembered.  All in all I'm trying to make the best of the situation since I really don't have any control over it.  Hopefully in the long run it will work out

Household wise the girlfriend is facing some personal situation which is playing out across the whole household.  I'm not going to go into any details about it here because honestly it isn't my story to share.  It did lead to a few surprise revelations and some personal insight which I feel pretty good about over all.  I'm also confident that we will all come out of this stronger for it on the other side both as individuals and and as a household.

So I've pretty much always been the type of person who people can talk to.  I'll meet someone and within a few days if they need someone to talk with I am often that person.  I just have the gift of listening, I'm able to be something of sounding board for people.  I try not to offer advice and just let them draw there own conclusions.  People come to me to vent and to bitch, what they never do is come to me for advice, that changed this past week.

During last week I was approached by two separate people who came to me asking for advice.  It felt really strange to me on a lot of levels to have someone asking for my input and who wanted to learn from my experience.  I was honestly a little apprehensive at first, I often look for the catch in situations, you know trying to figure out how things are going to back fire on me or this some sort of trap.  I'm more then a little paranoid about things like that at times.

The first person asked if we could talk but wasn't to clear on what the subject would be.  When we did meet he wanted to ask about my experiences as a Master and how we make our relationship work.  Apparently it is seen as a success by many people.  I consider to be one but had know idea that other people felt the same way.  It felt really good to talk about it and in some ways brag about it.

After both discussion I can say that it felt really good to be someone that people felt they could talk to and get advice from.

Keeping Busy

Things have been pretty insane as of late, I enjoyed a wonderful week off.  It was productive, it was fun, and most importantly it was relaxing.  The biggest disappointment of the vacation was that the weather had turned sour and I couldn't start running.  I was left with using the stationary bike, which I don't mind but isn't nearly as enjoyable as running. All it wasn't a good week for food and health.

Vacation came to an end with a brand new gaming convention out of Fargo, called dCON.  The weekend was a great trail run of the hotel that we use during our trips to Fargo.  It changed hands a couple of months after our last visit.  As a convention the weekend was great I got in a lot of really good games and tried a number of different new games. Also not a dud among the new games, which is always a plus.  I even got to try out a new roleplaying system that I had been curious about.

The most exciting part of the weekend for me was signing an contract with my artist for a game I am working on called Casting.  It was a very important step in the project.  When I have some more time I'll share a couple of the pictures and talk more about the game.

Anyways the vacation is over and now it is back to work both the day job and writing.

Loss of a friend

Forgive me readers as we do a bit of time traveling here.  I've had three important things happen in the last week that I really wanted to post on but that time hasn't allowed me to post about.  So we I'm making a point over the weekend to get each of these posts done as the separate posts I feel they deserve.  I also felt in the case of this first post that it was important to allow some time to pass before writing it.

From left to right: Mcgonagall, Bib Katt Tuna, and Jabba the Kitt

Tuesday morning, March 3rd,  I was awakened by a sound that I can best describe as a the sound a walrus makes.  I glanced around the room and spotted Jabba, the kitt laying on the floor just inside my door.  I got down on the floor and talked with him as I petted him and called to tamile and naivara.  All the while we kept him as comfortable as we could and talked with him.  We knew that he wasn't going to last at that point so it was about making him comfortable, reassuring, and having our opportunity to say good-bye.  He passed away around 10am that morning.  Leaving behind Mcgonagall, and following his brother Bib Katt Tuna to the cat nip fields in the great beyond.

Relaxing Valentine's Day

Yeah it has been a while since I've posted, and once again I will try and keep up a more regular posting schedule.  I keep finding myself getting distracted but a friend recently pointed out some of the benefits to regular blogging.  So I'm going to hold to a more regular schedule.

This Valentine's was a lovely long weekend. It started off with a nice dinner at Boston Pizza.  It was the first time in over 30 years that I had their pizza.  I had an awful experience with them as a child that left scars that are still visible today.  If you've ever seen me eat pizza, well Boston Pizza is the reason I use a knife and fork.  It is one of the naivara's favorite places to eat and we hardly ever go there so that made it something special.

Wow, its been a long time since I've blogged.  It must have been since I honestly can't remember if I've talked about naivara on here before or not.  She is my girlfriend/babygirl/housemate  We've been together for almost 6 years now.  In case you are wondering the wife is well aware of everything as we are what is called Poly.  Anyways it was a nice dinner together, and one I hope we can repeat again sometime soon. Sadly the desert that came after dinner was less then stellar. It made naivara sick to her stomach so we ended up calling it an early night.

Saturday was party day so we had some cleaning to do. Thankfully it wasn't all that much.  We had a few close friends over to help celebrate V-day.  It was a nice laid back party.  Lots of visiting and chatting.  One of our friends brought over a suspension rig and was able to put naivara up in the air for the first time.  tamile was going to go up next but when they started to lay her down the rope slide up and ended up around her neck.  So that was the end of that.  The rest if the night was spent chatting, drinking, and waiting for a taxi.  I ended up crashing before the last of the people left, it is a good reminder for me to remember to take a nap before our parties.

Sunday was spent with tamile and a couple of wonderful friends from Brandon who had coming for the party.  We hit a couple of vaping shops, I'm trying to get tamile to vape more instead of smoking.  It is a slow process but I have a lot of support from friends, including a person who works in a vape shop.  We also visited a local book store and then the 2 couples headed out for a late lunch.  It was a nice way to end the day and to get to know them both better.

Anyways that was my weekend,  I need to get back to working on the up coming MAsT discussion for next weekend.

Hey, long time no see

Well it is time to get this whole blog thing going again. It going to be a repository of all things I enjoy and that are affecting my life. That’s could include projects I'm working on (mostly writing and game design), games I'm playing, events I attend, and pretty much anything else that catches my fancy.  You can be certain that you will see a lot of things about writing, role-playing games, board games, my struggle with weight loss and maybe a bit about spirituality and polyamory.

No promises about the regularity of posts, I went done that route once and failed miserably. This time around I’ll be doing my best to keep this place active.  The best way to encourage me to post is to comment.  If you see something that is interesting in here let me know and I’ll be that much more likely to write more.

Anyways, I’ve got to get back to other projects right now so I’ll post more later.

A strange and scary yet oddly exciting day

Time for one of those strangely personal blog posts about what's happening in my life. You might recall if you've been reading my blog for any length of time that I had a lot of problems with my youngest daughter. Well back in September she reached the deadline and had to move out. We were not going to enable her any longer no job, not in school. It was time that she had a taste of the real world. So she moved out and stayed with a friend while she kept looking for work and a place of her own.

Our phone number was still being used as the contact number for resumes. Every so often we'd get a call requesting an interview, so we knew she was still looking. We didn't see her all that often during this period but when we did things were alright. Over the past month or so things have gotten better in this respect and we've enjoy a few dinners and over night visits. So the big scary news is that earlier this week she found herself a place in a rooming house.

This afternoon she is coming over, and along with the help of her sister and us. We are transporting her stuff to her new place and she will now be living on her own and making her own way in the world. I have no doubt there will be as much support as we can possibly give but it is still pretty different knowing that when she falls asleep each night there won't be someone else there with her to help her if she should need it.

Fingers crossed, candles lit, and my the God and Goddess watch over her in all their forms.

Nano update & Kiss Kiss

So I had today off as a personal leave day from work, Basically it is a day off with pay for no readily apparent reason. I don't really understand the point but I don't mind the day off and I do work an extra 8 minutes each day to take it. Far be it from me to not enjoy the day off.

I had some weird on again off again computer problems. Well not so much computer problems as I did internet connection problems. So as you can guess it should have been a day of kick as writing and getting a ton done. Well In part it was, I'm sitting at 41k for the month and have plenty of writing time left to finish the 50k. Based on the point I'm at in the story I figure I'm maybe about a quarter of the way through it. As with any Nano project when I'm done it is going to take some serious slashing.

I sometimes wonder about the value of NANOWrimo from a writing point of view. We do so much to focus on word pading and putting things in just for the sake of building up the word count. Which isn't something I consider to be all that valueable. Putting words just for the sake of word count just means that you are going to have to put effort into typing them just for the sake of putting more effort in at the end of the month or project to take them out. The reality is that I guess most people after November never even look at it.

*****

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/11/23/h1n1-europe.html

So an odd aside with all the talk of virus and N1H1 and what not it might just mean the return of the cheek kiss greeting. Apparently it is more hygenic to kiss someone on the cheek then it is to shake someones hand. Go figure, Will people be expected to use the alchol hand sanitizer crap on their face now?

Life Update

For those of you who have been reading my blog long enough you might remember some of the challenges that my wife and I faced with our youngest daughter. She turned 18 a year ago this December and graduated a year ago this past June. This past year and a half has been a bit of an adventure in parenting. We realized that there is a little bit of time after graduating when you need to find yourself and discouver what you need to be doing but at the same time you do need to accept certain responsibilities.

Over the course of the year we have been told a lot of things, discouvered a lot of lies, and at times seen some amazing growth on the part of our daughter. After one year of being largely jobless apart from 29 days when she worked at a local daycare and a 2 month period when she took a paid job finding program, she has been without work. We decided that enough was enough and told her in June that she had until September to find a job or she would no longer be able to live with us. She has not found a job, and this past Friday she moved out. At this point she is couch surfing with various friends and keeping in lose contact with us.

Our hope is that this will be an incentive to find her own way and grow up in some of the ways that she really needs to. So fingers crossed, and candles lit that it works out the way we hope for her.

Long sad day...

Went in to work this morning in some discomfort but wanted to try and tough it out and not miss more work. By about 1030ish it go to be to much. I couldn't take it any more even with a T-3. I headed home to drop off somethings before heading to a near by clinic to try and find out why I was still in pain from an operation a week earlier.

At home I discouvered that my dog Ginger was having problems, it had been for several days now. She hadn't been eating all that much since the weekend. Her back legs where shaky and she had a hard time standing up for any length of time. Tamile was very concerned and so was I. I didn't rush off to the clinic for me, I had to look into a few things animal clinics. We noticed more and more wrong with her as we watched her closely. Even after offering some of her favourite treats which she ignored.

We took her in to the Humane Society here in Winnipeg to check her out. She couldn't even get up to go to the door or go outside. The Vet suspected that at some point over the weekend Ginger at the age of 10 years old had a stroke. Apparently has a general rule dogs just don't recouver from them, they might linger for a few days before another stroke. but it will not be a positive experience for the dog or the owners. At that point we decided to have her put down. It was a sad time and both of use cried as the needle went in wishing her well wishes and a happy time in the summer lands.

She was a good animal and we hope that we where able to make her few years with us good ones.

After everything was said and done and Tamile was home I did go to the clinic for myself and the doctor did offer several very good suggestions. Which basically boiled down to sit the heck down and stop pushing yourself.

Well it is done

For those of you who don't follow my every Twitter (Shame on you) the Vasectomy is done. I was able to count three separate needles going in for freezing. It was an interest experience and perhaps the strangest way I've spent twenty minutes in my life. Almost certainly the only time I have let a strange man who I have only met once shave my balls without buying dinner first.

As it sits right now I am at home, legs spread, with the laptop balanced on one leg. I am most curious to see how this will work out in the end and just how much pain I will go through as the freezing wheres off. Which by the way it has already begun to do. There is much experimentation to go as to what is the best positions to sit and at some point to sleep. I must also admit a certain amount of curiosity about how much of an adventure going Pee will be.

As I mentioned in my last Twitter Jeeves now has his own blog. I would encourage everyone to stop by and drop him a comment of thanks for getting me there and back safe and sound.

Also please enjoy Today Vastetomy Themed Thursday 13

We have a Theme

So for the next couple of days this blog has a special theme. This coming Thursday morning I am going in for a Vasectomy I know how fun and how exciting. The other day I was sendnig out a twitter on my cell phone as my wife and I drove home from some shopping. She commented that I always seem to be doing that. Being the smart ass that I am I told her to just wait until Thursday when I send out the Twitter that reads

"They are inserting the needle into my ball sack"

I think we nearly hit something at that point! She didn't think I would do it, and dared me too. So well He I am telling the world that I have taken her dare and that I now plan to be sharing the whole experience on my blog and Twitter. So I wanted to give you all fair warning that the next couple of days could include subject matter that might offend some or make guys cringe. Also please rest assured that they line has been drawn at Photos and Video.

July Insanity

July is an insane month in my universe. The month kicks off with Canada Day and then quickly moves on to the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Then Monday after the 4 day music festival our billet arrives. You see my wife and I host a performer in our home for the 2 weeks of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, which starts on the Wednesday following the FolkFest.

All in all it is just a whole lot of rushing from place to place and trying to cram as much into the month as possible. We go from great music to Wonderful plays and shows. The down side of course is that a fair amount gets pushed to the side along the way because there are only 24 hours in a day and 31 days in the month. As always I try to post as often as possible.

I'm also please to announce that I have set up a seperate blog for Weightlose and beginning a healthier lifestyle. It is still in the process of setting up but please feel free to chat it out and join in our journey to a better life. http://ourbodyhertemple.blogspot.com