Happy Birthdays for Everyone!

Well, not for everyone. That's just me exaggerating!

It is my cousin Landon's 22nd Birthday today. Yesterday they moved him from the Tofino Hospital back to a hospital in Edmonton. Everything went well except my uncle and aunt had to pay for a private charter plane to fly them back because neither the BC government or the AB government would help them pay/organize anything to get him home.

The other birthday is my sister tomorrow. Happy Birthday Erin!

My Hair is Still Long

Well, a late March rain/snow storm kept me from getting my hair cut this weekend. I was actually looking forward to it. Oh well, I guess another week of growth won't hurt anything. The weather here has bee super crazy. It rained all day yesterday and then snowed all night and then the wind came and mixed everything together into a big mess.

Speaking of weather, last week a friend of ours participated in "5 Days for the Homeless". 5 of them basically lived like a homeless person to raise money for at risk youth in Saskatoon. It was very cold last week (-36C) and snowy and they slept outside on pieces of cardboard. They raised a tonne of money. Great job guys! Check it out at 5days.ca.

What Would You Say To Cancer

This is an awesome video! You will need sound for it.



I would say "Fuck you". That pretty much sums it up.

What would you say?

Speaking of cancer, I have made an appointment to get my hair cut on Saturday. I am the last volunteer donor to cut their hair. And I am terrified. It has been over a year since the last time I got my hair cut. I am going to look like a total freak. Oh well, I guess it's for a good cause!

Say Hello to my little friends...

We bought a fish tank a little while ago and finally have filled it.

We bought two sucker fish (which are actually catfish but I can't remember the technical name, something like Pseudacanthicus), two tiger oscar cichlids, and two albino tiger oscar cichlids.



Fish are amazingly difficult to take pictures of so here's a short video

It's turning into a regular petting zoo at our farm. But, I wouldn't pet the dog, or any of the cats, or the fish. I guess it's more of a "look but don't touch" zoo. So now come the hard part, naming them. I've never had to name a fish before. I was thinking Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Supper, Sucky, and Sucker but they aren't very creative and may in fact offend some people. So if you have any good fish names (not Nemo!) then let me know. I guess first I really have to figure out how to tell them apart!

And the wait begins...again

I am so very tired of having to do this kind of waiting. I thought that 2009 was going to be different. Apparently I thought wrong. I have done this kind of waiting at home, at school, at work, and at the bedside. Strangely, I think I prefer bedside. At least there you can offer some sort of comfort to the people who need it most. Here, there is just the waiting.

My cousin has had two operations in the last year and a half to remove cancerous tumors from his brain. The operations were almost exactly one year apart. After the first one, everything was going great. He only spent three days in the hospital and then was sent home. Chemo and radiation went well. He was hardly sick at all and was in high spirits. He took everything extremely well, especially for being so young.

Then he had a headache and they found another tumor. That was like November last year. Three days in the hospital and he was sent home to recover, again. Again with radiation and chemo, and again, it all went really well. So well in fact that his whole family (his mom, dad, and younger brother and sister) took a relaxing vacation out to Tofino, BC a couple weeks ago. I received pictures of them surfing and hiking and playing in the water. Then he collapsed and went into a coma. He is now semi-conscious in the Palliative Care Unit in the hospital in Tofino.

So again, I wait for a phone call that I know is coming but hope it never does. Every time the phone rings, there is a sick feeling in my stomach. But I still stay up nights listening for fear I will miss it in my sleep. I pray for peace at an end that I wish would never come. I feel hopeless and helpless about a situation no one can do anything about.

I feel empty and exhausted. Again.

Christmas Crafts

I was pretty busy this year making gifts. I like to make gifts. This first one wasn't actually for Christmas. A friend had a baby boy and I made it for him. This isn't the finished project but you get the picture.

This next one I made for my mother-in-law. It turned out nice a big and warm. I was relatively pleased. It was a relatively easy pattern but it turned out really nice.

This is one that I made for my god-son. I love how the lions mane and the eyes are attached after so they have some definition and it gives him something to feel and grab on to. Plus it's super cute!
This is a dishcloth I made for my mom. I have made quite a few dishcloths but she wanted one that was Christmassy, and this is what she ended up with. Turned out pretty good to me.
And this last one is the blanket I mad my sister. She likes orange. This blanket didn't have as much orange in it as I had hoped but it turned out nice anyway. It was soft and squishy and really warm. Perfect!
Now I need to start on next year. No more leaving it until October to start!

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!