I Love This:

An idle mind is the devil's workshop
And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

We build our own Mountains

We may not have the Rocky mountain view that Calgary does but we have mountains poppin' up all over the city, in front of our houses, behind businesses, from our snow removal cleanup....and I use that word cautiously...cleanup.....I'm still waiting for the grader that was promised 7 days ago. I believe that online this neighborhood  is classified as "Completed".

Yikes!!! I just went out to take this picture and realized I left my big garage door open all night....and is it freakin' cold in there.  Well if nothing else....my neighborhood is safe.
Yikes!Yikes!Yikes!


                                              Day 7 waiting for City Grader

Behind the theatre

That'a a city truck there with driver just relaxing in his nice warm truck while he sips on a pop, obscure from the public.

Sundried Tomato Dressing Chicken Breasts....No More McNuggets For Me

After reading the disgusting ingredients in McDonald's chicken nuggets, I've decided to experiment with some other ways of cooking chicken breasts. Though not particularly my favorite, because I find them dry, these are actually quite good.  At least I don't think of corn and silly putty when I eat these.  They are great for sandwiches the next day with whole cranberry sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion and cheddar cheese and mayo.

Marinate chicken breasts in Kraft Sundried Tomato salad dressing for an hour. Brown in skillet with oil for a few minutes, and transfer to a foil lined pan in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. I put just a little more dressing on each breast in the oven.

                                      Geez, I hope I have time
                                  to eat my lunch tomorrow.

Happy 24th Birthday Kassie

What a nice Surprise!

Well I awoke this morning to a mirage in my crescent....a yellow  loader moving around snow. I was so excited I even offered to make a pot of coffee for the driver which he said he would like. I knew the loader would only put a dent in the snow moving effort but it was better than nothing. By the end of 20 minutes I was right, he didn't know what the hell he was doing. He  was like a kid driving a loader in the snow, backin' up and goin' forward but no direction in where to put the dumps.....here ....there...maybe over there.  I was afriad he might get stuck in the beginning.

                        So I'm out there in my" red flannel pj's with white snowmen"  that Brandy bought me for Xmas, and my beautiful majenta winter coat with fur trimmed hood,  telling him what he should do.

  The loader could only move the snow and wasn't big enough for the massive snowpiles in the crescent.  I suggested that in the past when we did  private cleaning  .....that he move all the snow to the middle of the crescent and just clean up around our driveways so we could all get our cars out.  So he said that is what he would try to do....then he shows me a city map and asks me where this particular address is.  He is actually doing the wrong crescent. 

Well good for us, I say....keep on grading. 

So after I got him some coffee, I videotaped and took pictures for 30 minutes. I'm smart enough to know that if there is nobody standing outside here,  he will do as little as possible, whiz through and be gone.  By now three more neighbors are doing the happy dance as they walk towards  my driveway.  I am the only videographer/photographer in pyjamas.  So we all tell him where else he should scrape. He is quite cooperative. Then his supervisor comes to get him back to where he is supposed to be.

  Now the job in our crescent is way too big because there is too much snow and they have to call in a grader to finish it. We ask when the grader will come?????  When is a good question....could be next week...next month...after the moguls melt.  Nothing is ever as you wish it to be.... but even though it is still a mess,  I am happy enough with this rinky dink botched up job, compliments of Edmonton's pathetic snow removal department.....because they simply do not have enough snow removal equipment that is required for our winter snow removal. But.....hey...we are talking about getting a new arena that will cost millions to be erected in the downtown core where they probably have clean streets down to the pavement. Suburbians don't really know for sure....we just imagine that.... because we can't get out of our neighborhoods to go downtown to really look at paved roads.

View From My Driveway

 

 Well can't do anymore...he's done...at least  my driveway is semiclean.













Is this not pathetic?????
Enlarge and see the wind row blocking the truck on the driveway....that comes with the service. We had to run after him to tell him to come back and remove that. Only because the truck owner was outside...all other driveways were blocked...except mine and my neighbors.

Fourth Time Out Today

My driveway snow and street snow.  The street should be level with the sidewalk, if we had snow removal.

These look like kids shovels...but they are not.

12 feet high mountain.

Even the snow drifts are protecting each other.

A hottub sits under this.

Snow, Soup, Snot and Shameful Lack of Snow Removal

I am so thankful I always make chicken broth and freeze it in 2 cup containers. With as much snow as we have been getting and the ever lingering flu, chicken noodle soup has gotta be the best comfort food after shovelling or even  not anywhere related to shovelling. There is nothing better to open up your sinuses like steaming hot broth and the noodles are just comfort.

Bring a container of clear frozen broth to boil , add 1 sliced carrot, 1/8 cup frozen peas and let simmer till carrots are tender. In another pot make some egg noodles and add as preferred.

This is my snow off my driveway. ....over 10 feet high

This is the City of Edmonton's warped  interpretation of "excellent" snow removable in residential neighborhoods, as they call it....ZERO.....NEVER.....WHEN HELL FREEZE$$ OVER....OR NO......WAIT AND SEE THE TAX INCREASE NEXT YEAR  FOR  RESIDENTS WHO  WOULD  ACTUALLY THINK THAT THEIR PROPERTY TAXES SHOULD COVER ANY  SNOW REMOVAL IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS.

It's hard to tell here but there is a sidewalk in between the two mountains. This is my exit to the driveway..almost impassable.  I've been out three times already today  and only half the driveway is cleared.

There is just no where to put the excess snow anymore and with all the snow we've had,  we have not had one snow grader in our crescent.  "Shame On Edmonton" for squandering our snow removal budget on grading up levelled,  ice streets, when not needed, and complimenting themselves on a lousy job. instead of doing snow removal, when really needed.

My Little Love Monkeys

Whenever I need a quick little mental "pick me upper" I think of my little "Love Monkeys"

Our Chub Factor

I just had a call from a Charity asking me to donate some of my clothes, to the starving people throughout the world.
I told them ......."Anybody who fits into my clothes isn't starving".


On the flip side of this coin, a woman at the gas bar and I were sharing opinions on how horrifically cold it is outside, as I put the pump back in the machine and decided half a tank was better than nothin', because it is freezing.  Her response to me was that " Yeah and I can't find a fat enough guy to keep me warm". So one woman's chub factor is not anothers.

THE WAY BACK - Official Trailer

One of my favorite reads when I was interested in gulags was “ the Long Walk”.  The memoir by the Polish writer Slavomir Rawicz, is about a group of prisoners who escape from a Soviet gulag in 1940 and trek thousands of miles to freedom, across the frozen steppes, across the Gobi desert and finally across the Himalayas: the lucky ones make it to India.  His story has been very controversial since he wrote his book in the 1950’s.  Many said his escape was impossible and many said this was not his story. He died a few years ago so the truth remains with him. Recently a movie was made of this epic journey by Australian director Peter Weir, and it is called “ The Way Back”, starring Colin Ferrel . I'm not sure if this is in our theatres yet.

The Crazy Lady Is Back

Well the snot has cleared for the most part.  The brain cells destroyed by this bastardly virus may never come back but on the bright side..... that may be a good thing. I've lost ten days of my life down the toilet of viral hell and ten pounds of fat went with with it.  Never, never could I have imagined being this sick.  I am a survivior of every friggin' virus that manages to attack every season and rip my bronchial tubes to shit and back.....but this one, gentle as it came on was the worst of anything I have yet to experience. My delirium I can't even describe to myself with words it was so bizarre. I had no idea that a flu infection of the body could do what this did.  Anyhow I'm grateful for the no pukin' and shittin virus, ' for that would have killed me for sure. The virus was in my guts with no way out.  The rabbits in the snow bank in the front yard were poopin' more than me. The antibiotics were killing me.  So on Day 5, I took a customer's advice and scrapped the antibiotics and had a can of coke.  She told me that her doctor told her that COKE will kill anything. I'm not a fan of coke....outwhiskeyed myself with it years ago. But with this gutbug making itself quite comfortable and burrowed  into my intestinal track, I thought "What the hell!.... Coke...you little bastard...choke on the coke!!  Now some may say I'm crazy....used to  that....but it worked.  The antiobiotics were making me so nauseous and my gutbug was driving me nuts. I still don't like Coke and it was hard to drink it but in a day I think the Coke choked the little wiry varmint and I pooped it out.

 And not Diet Coke either ....I went for the big guns....real COKE!



My darling boys at Christmas....aren't they just the most little adorable mohawks?
God, there is just nothing as special as little grandchildren

New Housecoats from Darleen and Brenda 

 Daffy Dawg and Bear Paw

All my beautiful Xmas plates and this is what it came down to..

knife stuck in a pound of butter...help yourself.

My Darling boy after a bath...look at that gorgeous hair.

Twas the night before Christmas and all through though the house

Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse..Thank God!

Then with anticipation of Polish food, Santa squeezed his big butt down the fireplace chimney

And said:

What the hell???

Perogies and no Beer.

And no sausage????

 No bacon bits or sour cream? Oranges and shortbread?

 What Santa Claus do you know who drinks milk in a mug???

Get with the program, a fat guy has to keep his spirits high.

Next year this plate better look more appetizing....and it is" beer in a glass jug".....not milk in a cat mug!

I can't believe no sausage.

Must have been a vegetarian in charge of this plate.

Glampingbaba Out of Commisssion

Out of Commisssion due to flu bug!