Eight Random Facts About Me

I was tagged by Wreckless (a little while back, when I was offline) to do this meme.

Rules:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I get angry very fast and sometimes it takes me a long while to let go of that anger. Whenever I think of what made me angry I can start shaking and feeling just as bad as I did in the first place.
2. I can spend money I don’t even have without even thinking about it or having regrets.
3. I can easily get lost in my thoughts or daydream. My imagination is so vivid that at times I’m afraid to get lost in there.
4. During my MIL funeral I stayed in the back of the room, part of me felt like I didn’t belong there, because of our past experience, even if we had made “peace”… I felt sad to see her go just when we started to get along.
5. I realised at that time that I can/am quite stubborn and that once I’ve made a decision about something/someone it takes a lot to change it. I knew that already but events confirmed it further.
6. When I’m stressed or impatient I bite my nails. Not all of them always the same 4 fingers.
7. I could very easily become a fan of trashy newspaper and gossip columns.
8. During the 20+ days we were off the net, I realised that blogging has become a habit. I’m addicted, I admit it. And it doesn’t really bother me! he! he!

I'm breaking the rules and not tagging anyone, if you want to tell 8 ramdom facts about yourself, go ahead and copy this. And please let me know, I'm curious!

Your Friday Smile!

An Hawaiian woodpecker and a California woodpecker were arguing about which place had the toughest trees. The Hawaii woodpecker said Hawaii had a tree that no woodpecker could peck.

The California woodpecker accepted his challenge, and promptly pecked a hole in the tree with no problem. The Hawaiian woodpecker was in awe.

The California woodpecker then challenged the Hawaiian woodpecker to peck a tree in California that was absolutely im-peckable (a term woodpeckers like to use).

The Hawaiian woodpecker expressed confidence he could do it, so accepted the challenge.

After flying to California, the Hawaii woodpecker successfully pecked the tree with no problem.

So the two woodpeckers were now confused. How is it that the Californian woodpecker was able to peck the Hawaiian tree and the Hawaiian woodpecker was able to peck the Californian tree, but neither one was able to peck the tree in their own state?

After much woodpecker-pondering, they both came to the same conclusion:
Your pecker is always harder when you're away from home.

Happy weekend everyone!

Today was a good day!

I knew that today was going to be a good day due to the delivery of our furniture, i.e. dining & bedroom sets.

Before lunch the door bell rang and it was a Canada Post delivery! My Harry Potter managed to find its way to me! Yippee!! I started reading it almost right then and there! What a nice unexpected delivery!

Then at 12:30 our new dining room set was delivered and installed.

I thought I'd show you the different step we've gone through in the past month or so. Here's what our living/dining area looked like the day we moved in - June 28th.



Here's the dining room:

And our bedroom:

Here's how things have been looking, with some boxes unpacked and lived in a little more, for our dining area:

And the bedroom: Notice Tobi doing the chicken at the foot of the mattress? I think that because it was at his height he thought this was his new bed or something... We were living in our suitcases and store-away boxes... the joy!

Now, I took these a few moments ago after all delivery men left me with styrofoam bits everywhere to pick up, but with beautiful furniture as well!

Our new dining area: Notice there's a little less boxes, plus there one picture hung! Woohoo!

Here's a better view of the set as such - I love it! I never thought I would go for the "woodsy" look, but everything we own now is "woodsy"... must be a growing up thing...

Our new bedroom:
We're missing a night table, I returned it because it was scratched. At the price we paid I want a new one! The pictures don't do justice to the furniture. Look at Tobi exploring under the new bed...

As of yesterday afternoon, we are officially owners of this place. All papers are signed and the new mortgage kicks in.

Ok now that's you've seen what made my day, I need to go unpack more boxes and fill up those new drawers that have this lovely "new furniture smell"... aaahhh... that aroma... huuumm...

Poof!

I was going to do the tag that Wreckless gave me, but I don’t really feel like it because I’m pissed!

You see, (sorry Pigeon, but I have to name the unmentionable) in February I pre-ordered my copy of Harry Potter from Amazon. Then we put our house up for sale in March, and then we sold. I did try to change the delivery address to our new place, but because it was a new construction the system wasn’t recognizing the postal code. I figured that, at worst, since we’ve done a change of address with Canada Post that they would manage to deliver the book at our new place. WRONG! Thank you for playing! Next!

Saturday, I was impatiently awaiting my book. Nothing came. I wanted to call the new owners in Stinky Pierrefonds to see if they received it by mistake, but Hubby kept saying to be patient. Yesterday morning I figured I would call Canada Post to find out what was happening. After waiting on the line for at least 20 min. I was told that my parcel was at a post office near our old house, and that they don’t redirect parcels anyway. The address change is only valid for letters and magazines. WTF? Why wasn’t informed of this when I requested the service?

Last night, Hubby and I made our way to the Waste Island and went to the little postal counter where packages for us would have been delivered in the past. That counter is located inside a convenience store. We get there, and there’s a note stuck to the door that the clerk would be back in 20 min. So we wait. When he showed up, that kid looked like life chewed him up and spat him out. Unreal. I walked in behind him and asked if he could help me. The empty look on his face made me want to smack him silly. He looked for a few minutes and then said “Uuuh, I don’t think we have it”. I went back to the car where Hubby was not a happy camper. I then decided to go to our old house and ask the new owners if they had received anything. Hubby suggested calling first. I did. After trying to explain the situation that I’m looking for either the book or the card left by the postman to get the parcel, I was ready to hit someone. (You see the new owners don’t really speak English nor French, so communicating with them isn’t easy at all.) We even went to another location (postal counter), just to be sure. Nothing to be found.

This morning I took a few big breaths and decided to call Canada Post again. I did. 3 times. The first time I was told that my parcel was in a drugstore in Montreal (not even that close to our new place). The second time I was told that it was at the office we went to last night. So, I called there and was told they had nothing for me there. Called back Canada Post to land on a girl who said that according to their system it should be in St-Laurent. Yet another location! I told her to do something because I was ready to pop a fuse. She decided to open an investigation to find out where that effing book is and to “maybe” have it re-direct to our new address.

Now, can you say that this Muggle is ready for some magic?!

FuneralS

I’ve been wondering if I should write about it or not… I asked my beautiful husband if he would mind, and he agreed so…

Last week was a death week for me. My MIL passed away on July 12th, but her funeral was on Monday July 16th. It was beautifully done, simple and personalized. Hubby and I had provided some pictures of her through time, and the funeral home made a little video montage with them, which turned out quite good. Her brother did a photomontage that looked amazing. We had brought some of her art to display and I had put a picture of Hubby and his dad with her, in her coffin.

A lot of people came to pay their respect. The Hungarian community had a fair presence. It’s always surprising to see who will “pop up” at those things… and yet I think it is nice of people to make the effort and come. After the viewing, the casket was moved to the chapel where their Hungarian priest did a little service. Then Hubby got up and addressed the people present. I have to say that my husband is not the emotional one, he’s often perceived as cold, but I know that under all that lays a tender heart. The first thing that attracted me to him was is brain, how smart he was about little weird things. He knows the most random things and he’ll retain the strangest information; it’s freaky. He also has the great ability to write well. When we wrote our vows, I worked hard at it. He just sat there and came up with the perfect sentences. Did I say that he also often piss me off? No? Well, he does! But I love him. Anyway, he gave his mother a really nice eulogy. I thought some of you might want to read it (and he was ok with me blogging about it) :

Thank you all for your support and for being here with us to say farewell to my mother.

Each arriving in Canada with barely anything, my mother and father together successfully created a rich and comfortable life for our family. I am very grateful to both of them for this great accomplishment.

How to describe my mother, affectionately known as "Gitta"? I have thought of the adjectives we could use to describe her:

- Talented: as demonstrated by the few pieces we brought here today.

- Meticulous: she would start a task over and over until it was just the way she wanted the result to be, particularly for her art.

She was also strong, proud and generous. I am happy to have inherited a portion of some of these characteristics of hers.

However, like all of us she also had some less than ideal characteristics: stubborn (I can vouch for having inherited a good portion of stubbornness from her), opinionated and at times she could even be hurtful.

With myself and more particularly with my father EVERYTHING had to be just her way. As I mentioned, we all have some less than shining characteristics, myself included, and these were hers.

For 13 years my wife Stinkypaw had to bite her tongue to keep some semblance of peace in our family, but Gitta came around and made peace with Stinkypaw during the last 10 months. We are all glad it finally happened and as the expression goes: "better late than never". All three of us remaining are very happy my mother did this before passing. In some small way I hope it gave her a bit more peace before the end.

Gitta loved to entertain. She graciously opened her door to friends and family. I believe that all felt welcome and warm in my parents' home. She was great at entertaining and particularly FEEDING her guests (she would prepare at least three times the amount food required, just to make sure nothing would run out). It was during these times that she was at her best, while having a drink with friends and family, one of her favorite being a bit of "bubbly", Henckell to be exact. I am glad she managed to have a last sip at her 64th birthday on June 23rd.

Her greatest legacy is her love, the life she helped create for us and her great art. I sincerely hope that some members of the guild will think of her during a brushstroke here and there.

Dad we will do fine, once in a while we'll even give you a few orders to remind you of her.

"Mamika" you can rest in peace our eternal love for you lives on within us and your loving husband will be taken care of.

After that we invited everyone to come to a reception hall to toast Gitta one last time and have a bite to eat. FIL was very happy with how everything went and so were we.

Then on Thursday we went to the funeral of a long time friend of my parents. He died on July 17th due to bone cancer. As far back as I can remember he was always there. The last time we spoke was June 6th. He had called me because of a letter I had written him. When my mother had informed me of his condition, I decided to let him know how much he represented to me, and to thank him for always being a good influence in my life. My letter really touched him and his family.

When we showed up for the viewing, which was being held in the church hall, because the funeral home was too small, I saw a queue of people waiting to get in. I just couldn’t believe it. We had to line up to see the body and family, just like for dignitaries or famous people! The man I saw in his casket wasn’t the man I remembered. I’m so happy I got to let him know how I felt before he died.

His daughter in law thanked me for writing him, because it taught her that we should take the time to say how we feel to our loved ones, that we’ll never know how much it will be appreciated and how much it will mean to them…

I’m just glad I had a chance, with both deceased, to let them go in peace.

May you both rest in peace.

___
Image: flower

I'm back Baby!

Hello Blogsville! I’m back! Finally, after 23 loooong days!
I felt so disconnected. It’s one thing to be off the net by choice, but to be cut off like this wasn’t our choice, trust me! To be without a phone nor an internet connection wasn’t our idea, especially that we so needed both. We busted our minutes on both our cells just making calls re. my MIL’s funeral. But that’s all (almost) in the past now. Things are getting back to normal, somewhat… We still don’t have cable, thus no TV, but at least we own a lot of movies. I knew these would become handy someday.

So, I’ve been busy even though I wasn’t blogging. We moved to our new condo. The move itself went well; only 2 plates broken and a good floor scratch (5-6 boards need to be changed).

We are still “camping”. Our new furniture should be delivered next Thursday. Can’t wait to get rid of some more boxes. I’m getting tired of seeing boxes around. We haven’t unpacked everything because; well… the builder did some booboos.

You see despite having said very specifically what and how we wanted things and even supplying the specs for our fridge, the cabinetmaker made the hole the size of the fridge, not bigger, but the exact measurement of it. So, the fridge is right smack in the middle of our little kitchen, leaving us a little passage way... Fun!The cabinets are not what we ordered either. We are still missing doors and there are a bunch of things like that, that make this whole experience such a fun one! The week my MIL passed away, they had to redo our shower, because it was leaking, and not just a little. So the morning of her passing the plumber, the tile guy and the glass guy were in and out of our place one after the other. Did I say I was having fun while I was away? Well, I wasn’t!Besides being woken up at 5:30 every morning, and spending the day surrounded by the lovely sounds of hammering, drilling and swearing (‘cause those construction guys, man, do they swear!) while I was unpacking boxes, things were going belly up. We both felt like we were living in a pinball machine or something, and we were stuck on top, bouncing around, waiting for that shove that would tilt the machine. You know the one?

We are managing to enjoy life and discovering our new neighbourhood even if we haven’t found a grocery store yet. We walked to Chinatown for dinner and made our way to Old Montreal as well. It’s fun, it does feel like we are tourists in our own town. We are discovering new things and it almost feel like we’re on vacation. I think we’ll like this, once we are truly settled in and that everything is done to our liking – that might take a while, I know!

Between the Fireworks every Wednesday and Saturday nights, and the Comedy Fest there is so much to see and do. Last night, we walked (Yes Sir! We can walk to shows now! Woohoo!) to a gala hosted by John Pinette, he’s hilarious. It felt good to laugh. Some stand-ups were really good, like the Aussie Adam Hills or our fellow Canadian Jeremy Hotz. Overall it was a great evening and both Hubby and I needed that.

Shall be closing for now, but rest assure I’m back for good this time!

Quick update

Quick note: We are moved - it's still a construction zone and we are not connected to the internet, thus my going MIA!

I'm writing from my good friend Issy's desk! She was nice enough to let me use it. Thanks girl!!

Other news, sadly, MIL passed away yesterday afternoon after a hard battle. We are hanging in and going nuts, for a change!

Will get back to Blogsville soon - promise!