Thanks Dear!

Thanks to my husband for contributing to the cause! Not a bad total so far. Hopefully I will make the $1200 before cutting my hair. That's the goal anyway. I'm hoping to have some stuff to sell to raise money after Christmas. This time of year is so busy that I just don't have time right now, but soon.

Thanks Steve!

Thanks to Steve for making a wonderful contribution to the cause!

This is especially important to me now. A cousin of mine had a cancerous brain tumor about a year ago. They operated and removed it and put him through chemo and radiation. He was to finish his radiation at the end of November because there had been no sign of the tumor returning. On November 22nd the tumor came back and on November 30th they operated again to remove it. Back to square one. He had been clear for so long, we never saw this coming. It's been a devastating blow to the whole family. So now we start praying and waiting all over again.

Thanks to everyone who has donated hair and money! It means so very much to everyone!

Thanks Kim!

Thanks a million Kim for contributing to the cause!

I was reading a blog the other day and came across a link to a website called Gender Analyzer. You put in the link to a blog (or any web site) and it will tell you if it was written by a male or a female. Sounded cool to me so I went to try it out. I started with all the blogs I read and it was correct on every one of them (it was almost wrong on one, written by a man but found to be almost gender neutral). So then I thought I would run mine through. It was like 86% male. Hmmm...that's strange. The last time I checked I was a girl, but I guess I have to check again. I'd like to know what sort of algorithm they use to determine the gender. Maybe that's why I never wear dresses, I'm actually a boy. All these years I never knew. I bet my husband will be very surprised! Oh well, I guess it's not so bad. I write like a boy. Big deal. I also swear like a trucker! Works for me, even if it doesn't for others. They know what they can do with their opinions!

Some People Just Don't Care

Why would you even want to work at a job you don't care about? I can see if you need the money, but then go work at McDonalds or Wendy's or something. Don't trash the stuff other people actually care about. When I started my job 7 years ago (7 years!?! Where did that go?) I didn't take a holiday for 2 years and I didn't miss a day of work in the first year. I wanted this job and I wanted everyone to know that I wanted it and that I really cared about being able to work here. That just doesn't happen any more. Half the time people don't show up for work and they don't listen to what you try to tell them to help them learn. Doesn't seem to matter how many times I tell these people the way it works around here, they just don't listen. People higher up then me have even told them and they still don't listen. What is so hard to understand about "PAIR PROGRAMMING EVERYTHING" or "IF IT'S NOT MINOR DON'T DO IT BY YOURSELF"????? I just don't get it. It's like they are totaly oblivious to anyone else and they are all hot shit and they know everything and don't need to listen to anyone else. How can you do that? How can you just start a job and asume you can do whatever you want? That is not a good first impression and it's all about the first impression. If you screw that up, that's it. At least pretend like you want to try to be good at your job. If you can't do that, then get lost. And on top of everything, they still get paid. And probably the same as the rest of us who work our asses off because we want to be here and truely care about the company and the software. Maybe we're the ones that have it all wrong. Apparently these people have figured out how to get paid to do nothing. Must be nice for them since the rest of us are left doing our own work and theirs.

Ahhh...that's better.

Thanks Boss!

A huge thanks to my boss, Andrew, who made a very generous contribution today! THANK-YOU! THANK-YOU! THANK-YOU!

I was going to straighten my hair and measure it on Sunday but the TV's call was too strong. It's probably over 8 inches now. I will not cut it until the other two hair donors have cut their hair. Maybe I'll have enough for two donations.

A Courageous Fight With Cancer

If you find yourself with some spare time, I encourage you to take a look at www.fatcyclist.com and read about Elden and his family's battle with cancer. His wife has been fighting cancer for a long time and he has been blogging about it. Unfortunately, she is now losing her battle. It is a good example of why we need to join together to fight this ruthless beast so it can no longer ruin lives. Be sure to leave your support in the comments.

David Copperfield

We went to see David Copperfield last night. He looks so much older in person then on TV. I guess that's part of the illusion! And he was really full of himself. First of all he was 20 minutes late. Boo. But still ended on time. He opened the show with a bunch of video clips of every time he had ever been mentioned on TV or in movies. Seemed kind of strange. Then in the middle of the show they showed another video clip of a trick he did like 15 years ago. Don't get me wrong, the show was great, just a little strange.

For the last trick, he had all these balls thrown out into the audience and whoever caught them when the music stopped got to go on stage. There were 2 balls on our balcony and the two guys who touched them first threw them off the balcony to the main floor! Ugh! I wanted to disappear!

Oh well, I still had a good time.

The next show we are going to is Just For Laughs in November. Hopefully, after that it will be James Blunt, but I'm still working on that one!

Thanks Dorlan!

Thanks to Dorlan for donating!

More Thanks

A big thanks to my Mom who made a contribution over the weekend! Now that's Thanksgiving!

Also thanks to Penny who just came to my desk and made a contribution!

Another Big Thanks

Thanks to Wendy for making a donation!

I think I'm going to have to come up with an idea to encourage people to donate. Maybe I could make some stuff and have a draw or a few. Or just give people stuff for donating. We'll see.

And I'm on my way

I received my first cash donation today. Thanks Leeann!

More Donors

A huge THANKS to Danielle and Brittany for volunteering to grow their hair for cancer! That makes 3. Only 9 more to go!

Growing Hair For Cancer

Yes, you read the title correctly, I am growing hair for cancer.

I have seen people I love battle with cancer, as I am sure most of you have. Seems like everyone these days has or knows someone who has some sort of cancer. And everything you touch, eat, drink, or even look at will give you cancer. And I am sure that some day I too will have a battle with cancer.

Now what does this have to do with growing hair you may ask. Well, I have lots of hair, I always have. When you get cancer and start going for treatments, your hair falls out. I could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to have no hair. I mean, sure you'd save on shampoo but your head would be cold and naked. When battling cancer, not only do you have to deal with a tonne of stuff like going to a million appointments, taking medicine so you don't feel sick from the medicine you take so you don't feel sick from the chemo and radiation, being tired all the time, and possibly dying, you also get to deal with not having any hair and everyone staring at you because all of a sudden you don't have any hair and them all knowing that you are sick, and that you probably look sicker then you really are because you don't have any hair. When you really think about it your hair is a big part of you.

So, how can we help? By growing hair and then cutting it off and making it into wigs! I am going to do the growing part. I'll leave the cutting and wig making to the pros. All you need is 8 inches of untreated hair. It's easy! You just sit around and concentrate really hard on growing your hair. You can even do it while watching TV! Can't grow your hair because of hereditary baldness or you just don't think you could stand the ridicule? You could donate money instead. It takes 12 hair donations and $1200 to make ONE wig. That's one expensive hair cut!

I am trying to find 11 other people to make hair donations and to raise $1200 in donations. If you are interested in either part, let me know. One wig doesn't sound like much, but it could make a world of difference for someone.

I will be posting about progress so stay tuned. I need to get a trim so I'll do an official first measurement after that.

Among the animals

We went to the Saskatoon Zoo at the Forestry Farm a couple weeks ago. Neither of us had been there before and it was a beautiful day so we went. It was also one of the last weeks the baby tigers were going to be there.
They were almost impossible to get a good picture of. They were behind a pane of glass that was so covered in finger prints and other goo that you could barely see through it. We were outside looking in at them so there was also a lot of glare. I did my best. They were cute and definitely the main attraction. Everyone there wanted to see the baby tigers.

Next to the baby tigers were a couple monkeys. Not quite as popular but more enjoyable to us. This little fellow just sat and ate his banana. He was cute.
There was a lot of geese and ducks and peacocks around. And they had swans in one part.
The wolves were huge and very stinky. They reminded me of Midget. It was really hot out that day so everything was just sort of lying around. It was still strange to be standing so close to what could be a vicious animal and only a chain fence between you. And yet it's almost sad to see them there.
And of course there is the adult tigers. I think them and the grizzly bears were my favorite. I just could not get over how big they are. You see them on TV and you know that they are big but you never fully appreciate it until you're standing face to face with them.
The zoo was also full of baby animals. Here is a baby Yak.
And a baby caribou.
And this is an adult caribou. I just like the picture.
It was a fun day. And then we went home to our own "forestry farm". We came across these bison on a quad ride one day. They were following us. I guess they thought we were going to feed them. It was a pretty big heard. And lots of babies!
And then we came home one day to find a humming bird in our garage. That was pretty strange!And we can't forget the dog and cats. We've also had a skunk in our shed and a snake in our garage. There are bald eagles, geese, sandhill cranes, ducks, moose, elk, porcupines, white tail, and mule deer around us. And I'm sure many more that we never see. And it doesn't cost us a dime to see them. That's a pretty sweet deal to me!

Babies Again

Our cat was pregnant. I'm not too sure how pleased she was about that. We constantly had to chase her away from the beer.

This is about 2 days before she had them. She was really big! It looked like she had a barrel around her waste.
And, for some strange reason, she spent the whole week before sleeping in this flower pot.
Last Friday we came home from work to find Ali in a box with 6 baby kittens.



All white except for one gray. Well, we've done the puppy thing, I guess it's time to do the kitty thing. I feel sorry for Jaxie (our dog). She is way outnumbered now!

Wedding

I got married on July 19th. It was an amazing day. Just about everyone made it. We didn't have a drop of rain and barely a breeze. It was overcast so it wasn't unberably hot. The dog didn't bark and the birds were quiet for a change. No body got overly carried away. Basically it went off without a hitch. But now I think I'm suffering from PPD. I sit at home and have nothing to plan, nothing to make, no one to call about things, no ideas to look for, nothing to decorate. All that is left is a mess to clean up. It's kinda depressing. I also have various regrets popping into my head now. I forgot to put the fake rose petals on the aisle. I didn't hug my dad at the end of the aisle (that really bothers me). I should have gotten a better tan (it looks like I have a serious farmers tan in the pictures). I should have worked out more 'cause I kinda look like a tent (white and strapless just do not work for me!). I should have danced with my new husband whether we had an "official dance" or not. I should have made an announcement about the fireworks we had after because maybe more people would have stayed for them. There are a few pictures I wanted the photographers to take that I forgot about. I don't think everyone got a tour of the house. And the list kinda goes on and on. And there really isn't anything I can do. It's over and it won't ever happen again and that's just the way it is. That was my day and now it's over so I should just be happy I ever got it at all 'cause some people never do. God I'm getting soft in my old age! Imagine what I'll be like at 35!

Graveyard

We were out for a tour a while ago and found a church and a graveyard in the middle of nowhere. I don't know why but old graveyards and stuff seem so interesting. It's kinda fun to check out the dates and names and think about what happened and what their lives were like. Must have been a settlement years ago.
The newest tombstone said 1999 but the oldest was 1913. Although there were others that had no dates on them. Half of them were not in English. The consensus seems to be that it's Ukrainian which makes sense because the area is full of French and Ukrainian people.
One thing that we noticed was that there were lots of children and babies buried there. I assume that would be relatively common 100 years ago. There was one where the mom died the day after the baby was born, the baby died three years later, and then the dad died right after that. The other son only lived to 34. Craziness.

The family name on this one "Sopotyk" is the name of a road out here. Guess they were an important family.
We tried Googling the name of the church but it did not really find anything. There is no real signs of a settlement here either. A couple old farm sites but nothing else really. Although I guess all the land around here is either thick bush or farm land now. It's kinda too bad, it would be cool to know. I guess I could find out who takes care of the place (the lawn is mowed) and ask them. It's probably the RM. Or maybe it's better to just keep it a mystery!

Sunsets

We found this nice little trail the other day. Looked like a nice trail so we followed it. It went on for a fair ways. You could only see maybe 5 feet into the bush and that was it. It was cool. Imagine finding a trail like this in the middle of the prairie. Lucky us!

It led out to a horse pasture but also to the top of a hill with a great view.

I can see my house from here! But only when I use the zoom :o)



We saw people riding their horses around inside the fence line. This would be beautiful country for horse riding. Someday we'll be able to join them.

Around the country side

We went for a tour the other day and saw some wildlife. Well, only a porcupine, some ducks and birds, and some moose. There were three moose. I think that the one was probably a year or two old and the other two looked like this year, and relatively new too.

I only got a picture of the porcupine butt though.


Can you see the babies? (you can only see one of the babies in the pictures because the other did not stand up) I wonder where the mom is ?


The one baby did stand up to be counted!


I kinda wish we would have seen the mom but on the other hand, I'm kinda glad she wasn't around. She had her kids in a good spot though. They were basically on an island surrounded by thick bush and water. We hadn't seen any moose around since last year. It's nice to know they are still around. Now if the bald eagles would come back, we'd be set!

Yard Work

I like spring. I'm not going to say I love it because it is a lot of work and is very busy, but I like it. Finally got all the lawn mowed. That only took 9 hours over 4 days. Now the first part that I mowed is ready to be done again. Oh well, it's good exercise. Now if I can just get all the weeds out of my flower bed it would all be good. Just as soon as I finish I have to go back to the beginning and start all over. Especially with the dandelions. Darn things. But I finally have some flowers starting to bloom and they are so beautiful it makes it all worth while.

Plus I get to spend time outside and my cat really enjoys helping with the flower beds (actually, she just likes to lay next to me and watch me work!).


Still lots to do before July! Now if the weather would just smarten up! Painting in the rain just does not work very well.

Getting Real

I just finished reading "Getting Real - The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application" by 37signals. It was a pretty good book. I'm pretty sure I have read it before. But that's okay because it has a lot of good ideas in it. After I was finished, I just wanted to get on my computer and write something, but I was in a vehicle 30 minutes from home on my way to work so that didn't happen. And when I got to work I was like "okay, time to get real" but most of their ideas won't really work here because they are aimed more towards online projects and start-ups. Our software has been around for a few years already so we don't have to worry about start-up stuff anymore and it's not online and we do allow customers to get customized changes and we have meetings every morning. I would still like to try to start something at home but I have no ideas. I don't think I'm interested in doing anything really serious right now either. Books are always like "find a need and fill it". But I don't really want to unless it's the need for a game. But pretty much every game under the sun has been done already. Plus, I would have to get online and learn something like Ruby on Rails or something. Or I could just do something for fun again like the trucking monopoly game. That turned out alright. I still play it at home (and I don't even win all the time). I'm kinda trying to plan a wedding for the summer so learning a new language right now might just take up too much time. Maybe in the fall. But I almost need a laptop or something because my other half likes to be on the computer in the evening to play his games. Oh well, back to the work that pays my bills!

Bad Things Don't Come In Threes

I feel like I am doomed to live my life sitting in hospitals while people I love are sick and sitting at funerals when those I love die. It's pretty much been 7 months of hospitals and funerals. What's even the point of being here if everyone just gets sick and/or dies. And that's just the people I know. There's a whole world of sickness and death. And those that are not sick or dieing are shooting each other and blowing each other up in pointless wars. My grandpa, my godson, my sister, my great aunt, and now my dog. I mean, really, how much are we supposed to just sit around and take. I guess all you can do is just suck it up, have a drink, and wait for what will come next. At least I still have my job!