Well, I've been sick for a bit... missed some work.  blerg.  
But.. many many things are still going down.

The Anthology is OUT!!
I got my contributors copy actually last week.  it is a large paperback - about 400 pages.  I was excited but it took me an age to read it - a day or more.  I'm not sure why.   It just didn't feel quite real.  There were also some minor corrections I'd sent that didn't get corrected - annoying - but who cares?!  Not me.  I'm in PRINT!  wheeee!
I finally got a chance to read a chunk of the other stories - i was sick so I read - and there were some really nice pieces.  of course there is the piece by chronicpaint  that of course i have a special affinity for. :D

Meanwhile, I'm still writing... short stories mostly.  I feel I've broken through some kind of barrier.  They are much much better than before.  TheBigBad likes them.  That in itself if a good thing.  Even my supervisor liked the story in Desolate Places - and that was a surprise.

----------
In other news,
I set up an etsy.com account for my steampunk jewelry... called:  Clockwork Zero.   (shock!)
www.clockworkzero.etsy.com

it was shocking to say but something sold almost immediately.  A very nice pair of Earrings.  Still... I wasn't quite ready to have a sale so quickly so i was scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. 

anyway.
them's the updates.  I'm going to just sit here and cough and cough.
sigh.

well, looks like i'm going to be doing something new at work.  Something different.   I'm going to be moving out of the Tech Support job and more into a Service Manager position.  Not sure quite what that means but it's a change.    This does mean though the stress levels might start to come down.  Sure I'll have a new job - but I won't have to deal with the admins who have been making my job a hell for 7 years.  (esp the last 10 months or so).   No pay change but i'll be happy to do something different.

The writing is going along well.  The anthology will be out soon - and they are looking into getting 3 of us together at a local bookstore for a signing. omg.  ha.

The steampunk jewelry is doing crazy-well.  I'm just amazed.  Cin and I were talking about it... how it is so much different than writing.  With writing the idea is almost secondary to the work involved with the writing. It is a LOT of work.  Then editing.  Refining.  Clarification.  Rewriting.  and then more work.   With the steampunk jewelry its almost the opposite.  The techniques I've learned over the last 2 decades (more!) of making jewelry are skills just waiting for the idea.  Once the idea comes together it all just clicks into place - and then all i need to do is unpack those physical skills and create.  Sometimes a piece will take a week of thinking and re-arrangement of pieces...  but only a few hours to complete.

meanwhile.  more snow due?  wtf?   I know. Global warming has melted the frigging icecaps and they are all coming here to toronto to party.

gods.
there's a 6-alarm fire in the downtown area of Toronto.  For those in the know - its at Queen and Bathurst on the south side.  Looks like that video store there is toast.   burnt toast.  On the way in the smoke covered the CN Tower - blotting it out.  We can smell it all over the city.   Anyway, I was worried about my friend who lives a few blocks away... but E is fine.  whew.
but the smoke! wow. 

oh and duh..
i was going to post a photo of the steampunk jewelry.. and forgot.
earrings:

and
a brooch - the pendulum part swings. :D the "claw" moves a bit too.

So dear friends, I know I've been absent for almost a half month now - my home laptop is pretty much out of commission. It served well but has been acting up lately. I've spent a while backing everything up.

I've been up to other things though - writing certainly - but lately I've been on a creative kick of epic proportions (well epic for me).  I started to create jewelry again. 

I'm not sure how many of you know I used to own a Bead store - a very small one - when I lived in Montreal in the 90's.  It was more like a cart/store - in le Faubourg in Montreal.  Anyway it was fun - a lot of work - but I loved it.  When I left Montreal though I had several boxes (deep big Rubbermaid containers that weighed a godload) of beads, finding and materials.  Masks.  I was a mask maker for a while - fancy feathered beaded masks.  All kinds of stuff.  When I got back to Toronto I made more jewelry until the late 90s when my carpel tunnel got so bad I had to quit.  My hands would go numb every night. 

Needless to say in the last 8 years the only real jewelry I've made has been personal stuff.  some necklaces.  Sometimes a gift for a friend.

Then... tailchaser
made some post a while back about jewelry.  Suddenly my brain exploded.  I saw steampunk jewelry... and it set something ticking in my heart. Tick-tock ticktock... this.  this was the kind of jewelry I love.. and I could make.  Yup.  There was nothing to do but pull out The Boxes from the Closet of Doom - and start digging.  I found watch parts, beads, watches (seems like i break the things all the time and still get them as gifts - cheap watches though, no fear).  That was Friday Jan 25th when i pulled out the Boxes.  By the next week I was already starting to make jewelry.

So my friends... I'm going to let you all in on a secret - I started a jewelry blog.  I want to keep it separate from my current LJ friends though because I don't want to bother y'all with my rattling on about jewelry.  But, if you like - do go check it out.  I might make the occasional post here about jewelry.. but that LJ details most of what I'm doing and creating.

And, to keep track of it, I've started a Flickr too:  a clockwork zero flickr
where i'll be posting my jewelry and stuff.

Please feel free to not-friend or friend as you wish.  I still won't be making a ton of postings anywhere.   I will though be selling the bijoux - so here's a question... has anyone sold stuff on ebay?  I'm  thinking of doing so but really have no idea where to start.

========
and is anyone else watching "The Sarah Conner Chronicles"?

Wow, its been ages since I posted. I think this is about the longest it's been...

but I have news! I've been fretting over something for a few weeks now. Yesterday we had an appointment with immigration. But it went well! In fact...

The Big Bad is now a Permanent Resident!

No more immigration hassles! He's here to stay!

He'll be able to get medical, get onto my work insurance, travel all he wants. It is a fantastic thing. I'm so damned happy. I was almost sick with anxiety the night before yesterday. All Monday I was fretting, and that night I think I only slept 2 hours.

I'll try and post again later this week and catch up with everyone.

Really, I'll be making some other posts eventually! Right now my computer is Suffering, so it's a matter of when i get a chance. that seems to be rare these days. But as it's SRain's birthday...
I think she'll appreciate this.

Anyway, all the best for you, Rain. May the 30's be good to you!

Heh, thought i was so old I wouldn't remember Nous? Welcome to your forties. Hope you have a great day!

Well we arrived back from Kentucky.  All was good... the weather was great.  70F for 2 days.  Then cold and clear when we were coming back.  Lots of food and family.  We stayed in a really nice Holiday Inn for the duration.  Clean, comfortable and with a great buffet breakfast.  All was good.  I got to fire off an AK47.  now, that was coooool.   I love the rolling hills down there, the stands of trees and the clear nights.  At one point we went for a walk....  "around the block".   An hour later... heh... we were still walking.  There were moments when it was so quiet my ears hurt.

When we got back I got to check my mail and found....

I made a story sale!  Yay me!  it is to an anthology - an actual PRINT anthology called "Desolate Places".
its really exciting to think that I've sold something.. and that it will be in a form that I can hold in my hands.  Whoop!

and! and! ....
my MondayNight Writing Friend:  chronicpaint will also be in there too. OMG.  We worked on our stories together - they are both very different - but reviewed and whacked at them.  

Funny thing, about 3 weeks before the deadline, I spent an hour rattling on and on about the story idea I had for the submission call.  Then I got sick and started taking that damned medication (prednisone).   During that week I spent a lot of time writing an incoherent, rambling story... which I showed to chronicpaint (SGK) TWO damned days before it was due.  SGK looked at it and said: "ummm.... what happened to the story you told me about?  Ummmm... this doesn't really um... well.  it kind of goes off on a tangent.  And it really isn't anything like what you described." (translation: wtf?)

It really wasn't.  Somewhere in my sick mind the story had become completely different.  And completely a mess.  As he was telling me this, I realized he was right.  Whatever I had written during the week plus of being ill was terrible. .. most of it.  So I started to rewrite it then and there.. as SGK was talking.  Finally, after 2 days of rewriting at a completely frantic pace, I got the story I wanted and had envisioned.  I didn't really have much time to get it fixed up or reviewed - SGK said a few words (much better!) and my dearest cinnabari got to point out some of the shining mistakes.  Basically, I thought: "damn.  this story is great for this call, but I don't have time to do much reviewing/editing.  Oh well.."  Off it went, just hours before the deadline.  THAT is what I ended up doing Halloween.... rewriting with a fury.  Tripping on the formatting and writing my guts out.

guess it worked.  I'm so happy! :D


and.  I've still got a bit of this cold.  Sore throat.  sigh. Not bad though.  Before I left I went to see the doc:   Bronchitis.  Throat infection (reaction to the meds).  I got MORE meds... which made me sick.  so right now: nothing.  I stopped taking them.  Hopefully it will be a better solution vs the round of illnesses brought about by steroids/antibiotics.  I can hope anyway.

so in one of those: haha moments, I subbed the following photo over to:
photocontest

this week's subject was CONTAGION.
and i've been sick ever since.

anyway, I'll cut it for the squeamish.. but I'll have you all know - no husbands were damaged in the making of this photo. It only took about an hour of photoshopping to tweak out the colours I wanted, and i'm pretty happy... but still sick. some kind of virus? I actually missed work ! stayed home. lay about. held down some soup. got The Bad to look after me. read. Spent the ENTIRE weekend at home - didn't eve step outside.

anyway, still staggering around now... and am very behind on correspondence, alas. I've seen the Doctor who has prescribed me a fistful of meds. lovely. Seems part of the problems with my throat have been due to the last set of steroids they prescribed. Great. Take drug #1 to fix problem A. Take drug #2 and #3 to fix problem B caused by drug #1. If there are any problems caused by drugs 2 and 3 I'll kill something.

but not right now though.... cause tomorrow we are heading down to Kentucky for the week! Yay! Vacation! I've not seen my inlaws for over a year. We'll probably eat too much turkey and have food like: cornbread and biscuits. Canada just doesn't do biscuits like they do in the US. I'll probably get the chance to do some target shooting in the back woods. Rumour has it too that it will be warmer there then here... which makes me happy. I'm not a great fan of the cold.

anyway my "zombie / contagion / eek! photo is behind the cut. The blood is all photoshop! really... i wouldn't hurt TheBad just for a photo... really!

( contagion photo.. )

Conversations overheard today:

on the TTC
F: "i'm being laid off!"
M: " i know that feeling I've gone from 6 hrs a day to 4.  I wonder what's next.  2?"
long silence
M:  "Did you see the zombies the other day?"
F:  "Yeah.  in the park."
M:  "I was walking around thinking: why are there so many zombies around today?  What's with the zombies?"
F:  "yes there were a lot.  Not every day you see so many."


Old woman:  "I saw you're uncle last night."
Young woman:  "Is he any better?"
OW:  "Better?  He's got emphysema.. it doesn't get better."
YW:  "Really?  I thought maybe his lungs would regrow.  He's had it for years!"
OW:  "Regrow?  He's only got one lung, they're not like fruit you know."

and now, for a near seamless transition...

speaking of lungs, I'm trying Prednizone because my asthma took a turn for the worse sometime last week.  not reacting well to the normal meds at all.  So i finally dragged myself into the Doc and he said: 5 days of Prednizone.   How bad could it be .. right? 

oh hahaha
I got a headache on day 1-2.  sleeping issues for 2 of 3 nights.  the headache went away and is now back.  Not migraine - but a band of steel that's being slowly tightened around my head.  lovely.  headache, dizziness, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, lightheadedness = check and check!  but here's the funny part:   inappropriate happiness. 

thats right...  i've not got just a pounding tension headache... i'm actually bouncy and strangely happy too.  HYPER.  I figure this should last about 15 more minutes and I'll go straight to: Changes in Mood and loss of contact with reality.   I've been on this crap for 4 of the prescribed 5 days now... and I tell ya:  no thanks. not again. 

So my Cowboy-Brother is now in town for a few days. Last week on-set (since when he's not running his business he's decided to do Extra work as a stuntman - wtf?) his horse tripped over some cabling hidden in some bushes and fell on him. Other than badly bruised kidneys, stitches in his head and a broken nose he's fine. I think his nose *might* be slightly more crooked than usual, but we're talking about a huge honker that's been broken more than once before.

On the weekend I ended up teaching a full class of Aqua-Fit. It went off fairly okay. I didn't puke from nerves. No one died. No one puked. One woman complained that we didn't have enough cardio (about 22 min by my count).... but we did more crunches and stretches and more of everything else. Anyway seeing as i had 30 min warning to design a 1 hour class with zero training -=- she can bite my shiny metal ass. I'm hoping to you know.. get some training or something. Seeing as they had a choice of : no instructor or me: they should feel lucky to have survived at all.

anyway, now i'm digging up info on aqua-fitness classes. I really wouldn't mind teaching it a few times a week. hella easier on my knees then most aerobic classes.

Last night Bro, TheBad and I went to see, "Eastern Promises" starring Viggo Mortensen - LoTR, Hildago etc. - directed by Cronenberg. I've got quite mixed feelings about Cronenberg movies. He's got that gore factor that I'm not always keen on. Not really great gore - but the kind where you tilt your head and think, "wow, wonder what they used to make *that*", after your stomach has settled. I disliked, Naked Lunch, and liked the Dead Zone. You all know how it is, I'm sure.

Anyway, the movie is pretty damned good. Maybe more for me then for some people... because the Russian gangsters of London, reminded me waaaaaay too much of my Dad's family. Mom's from India. Dad's Yugoslavian (though when my grandparents were born it was Austria-Hungry). Viggo looks like he could be some cousin. The food - reminded me of the dinners from Yugoslav banquets. The music - one scene that left some woman HOWLING with laughter - was horribly accurate, down to the "costume", tone and
Looking at Armin Mueller-Stahl was like looking at some great-uncle. Cronenberg nailed the feeling of the culture. My skin kept crawling with the feeling of *almost understanding* the language. My uncle speaks Russian and a handful of other languages. I'm sure he would have found it an interesting movie if he still watched movies.

I think this has to be one of the first Full Frontal Naked fights that I've ever seen. Viggo. hm... Definitely naked. Definitely fighting. All covered with tattoos and blood... and nothing else. Unfortunately the fight distracted a lot from the naked man.

and the Below photo was the "Winner" for the weekly Photocontest - on photocontest  . This week's theme is "flutter". been fun playing. The shot below was taken in a hidden place in the Distillery District here in Toronto. Then I went and photoshopped the image to develop a cross-processing/Split Tone feel, added grain and played for a while. lots o fun.


                                  

Okay, so today I was looking at Grammar Stuff.  But then I became distracted by the word Hinterlands - not the Gibson short story, alas - but the Hinterlands Who's Who that was a part of my childhood.  My American friends all got the cool stuff - SchoolHouse Rock and all i got was Moose and Loon. 

soon though I was distracted by talk of bacon.  Not Francis Bacon, First Viscount St. Alban.  Nope.  Bacon as food.

then my coworkers started talking about grilled cheese.

damn.  Did you all know I make fantastic Grilled Cheese Sandwiches? 
We are talking about World Class Grilled Cheese. 
Sure, sometimes I get creative and put other cheeses in them, but in my heart I'm a Traditionalist in Grilled Cheese:  go for the cheddar people.  Old, cheddar or at least a good sharp farmers cheese.  I use brown bread... mostly Dempters Whole Wheat.

which leads to a strange question.  I find bread in the US to be quite sweet.   (the ingredients here are usually with sugar 4th on the list: Whole wheat flour, Water,  Yeast, Glucose-fructose/sugar, Vegetable oil, Wheat gluten, Salt etc).   Maybe it is just me though, or it is regional ... I've only really spent a fair amount of time in Arizona and Kentucy.  My Dad finds it the same in Florida.

and that leads me to the fact it is almost time to go home!

Ramble on!

Been a LONG time.  whew. 

Work has been nasty busy.  So busy I ended up doing OT for the first time in months.  Lunch? Ha!  I'm not going to get into the details but it involves a few people that need a good kick upside their heads before they touch machines.  Anyway it looks like things are In Flux at my job.  No telling what is going to happen but the details will be settled soon.  I just hope it won't be too many big changes for me personally in a short amount of time because some of the ideas being tossed around make me want to grit my teeth.  The problem is pretty specific to me and my position here...   so at least there won't be a bunch of other people affected.  oh hurrah.


What's been going on?   No time to really post, read, relax or comment.  Even emails are tough.  I have though still been writing occasionally, as much as I can sneak into my life.  Writing is good.   I then submit stuff... and occasionally hear back after 50 days or more.  It is really hard to get anxious about what I am submitting when it can take 89 days to get a "gee, this was really good BUT..."   Currently there are 5 things out in Submission - some old, some new - most having been rewritten frequently from their first incarnations.  At least I'm not killing markets any more (which happened for a while - I'd submit someplace and either 1. never get an answer or 2. find the website vanished or 3. hear about it being closed).

What else?
Yesterday was Thanksgiving.  We had a fantastic time at Dad's with my Aunt and cousins.  There were 10 people and so much food it was crazy.  We were given about 8 containers of leftovers.   TheBad looked quite happy as well as very handsome in some new clothes he bought.


Oh yes.
About 2 weeks ago I kind of started teaching an AQUAFIT class at the YMCA when the instructor didn't show.  I'd gone to about 5 classes before that.  When Heather got stuck in traffic the lifeguard came out and asked if anyone was willing to teach it.  I did NOT volunteer.  Some how though after a few people tried calling out some of the moves - I ended up being the only person who remembered most of what we were supposed to do.   After the class the lifeguard approached me about teaching - they'll pay for the courses - just occasionally.  Then the instructor, Heather, approached me again this weekend.  So, I'll probably be teaching a few classes maybe in  the new year.   Pretty funny given  I  only  fairly recently have  learned to swim and am getting over a life long fear of water.

And. 
not much else. 

Observations of the month so far:
- now that I'm older the men that hit on me are older.  When I was 20, I got hit on by 35 yr olds.  When I was in my thirties they were in the forties and fifties.  Do you know what I'm going to say next?  yeup.   The old guy that hit on me last week was in his late fifties or early sixties.  It's depressing.   I picture myself as a 60yr old woman being followed by old men in walkers, shouting weakly, "hey, wait up!"

Well today my supervisor is Shaving her Head for the Terry Fox at Work Day
!
I'm really proud of her.  I thought I would post it up in the ever so slight chance that anyone here might be interested in pledging her for it.  For those who might know Nadiera - she's got loooooooong curly hair... in shades of gray and black.   She's quite nervous too :D    If anyone would like to pledge her and wants to hand me some cash at some point later then let me know - we can arrange something.   If anyone who knows her (And there are a few people on lj who do) - and want to pledge - go to www.terryfoxrun.org  click on "Terry Fox at Work Day NEW" - its in the middle of the page ---> chose the top option (The Great Canadian Head Shave) ---> Province: Ontario  and then choose NADIERA's name out of the list. 

If you want to pledge her - and know me - drop me an email if you want and we'll talk about how to pay it - she's got 2 weeks left to collect pledges. 

Anyway, today at lunch I'm going to go down and cheer her on with a few other people from work.  should be fun. 

I got poked with a Sharp Stick for not posting... in weeks.  How did *that* happen?

might have something to do with Very Limited access to the net now on weekends and evenings. 
Actually, you can pretty much bet I'm not online at night.  There's a few reasons.
I've got a few issues with my laptop - mostly the fact that it is almost completely FULL and my backup drive died.  (are the photos there recoverable?  who knows!  were they duplicated on the *other* Hard drive --- I can't remember --- and of late I don't seem to have the required few hours to check).  At least there are about 10 different backups of the writing.

I've also had some vacation time.  Whoo!  Which also means a few short weeks at work.  Whoo!
 It seems a Very Good Thing - but when I get back to work today I just feel the weight of it all come down on my head. 
There are a zillion things alarming (okay. exaggeration - there are 30) and almost no one around.  People are off on vacation.  Smart.  Feels like i should have stayed home today and just sorted things out.  But instead I'm hear and I can feel the pressure changes in the air - feel them like a steel band around my head.

Last week at the start of the 4 day vacation time (2 vac days and the weekend) it all seemed like it was going great.  TheBad and I went to see The Bourne Ultimatum.   Now, I admit I've been a fan because the first one was pretty good.  Well.  I liked it enough to see the 2nd.  I think to be honest - it is the only ones of the genre - spy / thriller - that I ever read - back in 1980.  My Dad would get them from the library - and when I had charged through my books (a library limit of 10 for teens didn't do it for me) - I'd read his.   Ludlum's were the only ones I really liked along with the Bond series.  

So.  Went to see it after a great, spicy Tex-Mex dinner at La Hacienda.   Sounds great eh?  Dinner and a movie...
except I started to get vertigo.  FUCKING hand held camera.  nausea-cam tricks. 
I'm not even sure if it was really vertigo - maybe it is something related?  I can sometimes get the same sensation watching someone playing a video game.  My eyes started to water. I started to feel restless... really ants-in-the-pants shifting around in my seat.  Then I started to yawn.  I'm sure the people behind us thought I was bored to tears by the movie.  Every 35 seconds I'd yawn.  I started to get a headache too and the typical dizziness.

I dunno. any clues?  I also wonder if it could be tied with my migraines or pressure changes or something.  Is it really vertigo?  Sometimes i get moments of spinning dizziness but they are very, very rare (and i think related to low blood sugar). 

right now I'm fighting off a tension headache that no doubt related to the stupid bloody weather of late.  It feels like we will freeze to death at nights.  TheBad actually got out a heavy blanket last night.  What happened to warm August??

anyway.  was the movie good?  who knows. I spent so much time blinking, wiping my eyes, spinning and trying not to toss up my very nice dinner - it could have been brilliant or the worst movie since Catwoman - and I'll never know.  Too bad.  I might have enjoyed it if they hadn't shown it in a Tilt-a-Whirl theatre.

-------
not much more to report.  I've got a few stories out that are getting their near-customary PFO's.  I've gotta start mailing some out soon.  It seems rather depressing at times.  Days like today for example when the clouds are low and gray.  Haven't really taken many photos I can't do much with them anyway til i sort out my laptop.  SIGH.

I know I've missed a bunch of birthday LJ wishes.  I suck.  The cement sky suits my mood today perfectly.

 

sounds like a good chunk of Montreal is Having Power issues right now.   We always know this stuff because 30 seconds after a big power outage our Montreal team calls us.  30 seconds after that we start getting alarming systems.

Its a great time for a migraine.   I'm slowly losing vision as I'm writing this.  Visual phenomena - arcs of geometric zig zags are strobing in my vision.  Its going to be a bad one.     Meanwhile some *#&@!! is carefully pushing a knitting needle from the back of my head on the right side ... all the way through my left eye.  Also, I just might throw up.   I'm now testing " advil liquid migraine xtra strength 400 mg" caps.  we'll see if those puppies do sweet shit all.

the niece departed.  We saw her last night.  There was GREAT DRAMA involved.  Sulking.  Silence.  etc.   It was pretty exhausting.  I think my dad probably was laughing inside.  payback.  And speaking of Dad, he had a migraine yesterday afternoon.  my grandfather had them too.  Hopefully the niece won't get them.

i'm going to rest my head on the nice, cool keyboard.
dkfjsda;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;ghjkjgjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

It probably says a lot for my vacation when I am so grateful to get back to work... Hurray! Work!  Yay!
No doubt because work means a lot of sitting around - getting caught up - talking to customers - working with admins... it is so much more peaceful.  :D

Not that my niece is a terror.... she's a great kid.  But dogs she has a lot energy.  We could solve world energy problems if we could figure out a way to channel some of that.  J.'s become a real chatter box too - full of stories and information.  She's 10.   She likes to draw and read aloud but she comes from a farm environment where she has horses, dogs, cats, snakes, chickens etc.; sitting still is not I guess, part of her regular routine. 

We went to the Royal Ontario Museum with her and her Grandpa and Jan (my dad and kinda-step-mom), to the Bata Shoe Museum, to the African Lion Safari and the Toronto Zoo.  We also took her shopping to buy beads.  There was a quick run through Kensington Market and a few hours killed playing frisbee in the park.  Dinners with us, my Uncle and my Dad.  She slept over for four nights too... we caught up with Harry Potter Movies.  ... so we went with my Dad to see the latest Harry Potter movie.  (it was okay... best part was when my niece refers to "Baltimore"... you know.. Lord Baltimore.. the guy that looks like Micheal Jackson - he's white and has no nose?).

We also got J to watch Kung Fu Hustle...  and part of Shaolin Soccer (alas no time to finish watching it).   Anyway, she's now running around saying "I am Mighty Steel Leg!" and "I'm going to use my Buddhist Palm move on you!".  All this is confusing her grandpa.. and no doubt shall really confuse her mom.  hehehehe.

The Niece leaves early Thursday morning.  We'll see her tomorrow night.

anyway... getting back to work.  Feels like the entire summer has been full of Hustle.

My Cowboy Brother's daughter is in town.
She's 10.

quick! hide your valuables, lock up your sanity, and start running now.  Toronto should go on Red alert.
:D

actually, she's a swell kid.  Lots of energy, lots of fun, and very happy.  We've loved having her around over the past few years... and my gods, she adores theBigBad.  Two summers ago when she was here she bit him a dozen times and locked him out on the balcony.  He also spent hours tossing her up in the air.   Last summer he was again Her Favorite Relative.  He managed to carry her around the Zoo (though I think she did walk sometimes).   They also went on many crazy-crazy CNE rides... the kinds I refuse to go on (though she did convince me to go on a few).

So, I'm not sure What's the Plan for this year.  I've booked 3 days off - Thurs/Friday and Monday.  Gods! 5 entire days off in a row??  It true.  It was a real trick getting permission for it... but it's rather exciting!  5 days of family fun and adventure....
(eeeek! 5 days?!.... i should start running now...)

anyway, in a very real way I'm looking forward to seeing her and hanging out with my Dad over the next few days.  It's too bad my brother couldn't make it out from Vancouver and my mom is away, otherwise it would have been a big party.  As it is, it will still be great. 
Great as in madly busy, and full of photos. 

i love summers... but at this time of year the streets become a hazard. 

This morning this cyclist zipped past the stopped cars and almost ran me over as I stepped off the curb to get the the streetcar.   It is the equivalent of someone gunning their car so they don't have to stop when the streetcar pulls over.  Then she screamed something as she zipped past.  The old lady beside me almost had a heart attack. 

I have a lot of friends who ride around Toronto... and thank gods most of them are sane and obey the simple rules of the road.  Its the ones like Zippy that are dangerous.  I'm pretty tired of cyclists running reds, riding on the sidewalk, going the wrong way and cutting through traffic.  It's not only irritating but dangerous.