Guitar angst

I couldn't find the picture with Yoda in the guitar case...So instead I give you Yoda in the laundry basket! Look at that 'You are bothering me!' face!

Priceless!

I started take guitar lessons in January and it's going ok. But I have a couple of problems....lol First I'm lazy so I don't practice everyday, second my hands are not really bendy and last I can't always understands what the teacher says. The teacher speaks english and I speak english and he even does part of the course in french (for my benefit I'm sure) but sometimes I don't understand and since nobody really asks questions....I feel I'm the only yahoo who doesn't compute so I do panic a lot of the time. Lots and lots of weird conversations in my mind!!! On the last course of the session ( 2 weeks ago) I took a lot of notes but I still can't figure which strings I'm supposed to play...And I surely had a brain fart because I plopped down more of my hard saved cash to take guitar advanced. The first course is tonight and I'm fighting panic big time!

Well, spazzing in my blog was a good idea, because I feel better! What I can't understand is that I'm very artistic and I learn very fast, so why am I struggling??? I have a very good grasp of the english language, I could hold a telecom conversation about broadband no problem back in the day. Maybe the key is the laziness....Probably!!! LOL

I'll ask one of the cats to give me a swift kick in the pants!

I went to the church basement today and found 2 pillowcases that I will use in my living room, because I have bed pillows on my sofa (as you can tell it's very informal). It was SO formal at my parents place, I think I went to the living room 5 times a year. I also found a weird Xmas tablecloth, vintage but from the 80's I think. After I went to the hairdresser and got a haircut (as per Dan I was in danger of looking like a welfare recipient that we see on Jerry Springer-with a Mullet).

Tomorrow a big day! Downtown Montreal...I will be at the Salvation Army for the opening, then lunch with girlfriends and a good tune up at the chiropractor! Delicious :)

Pay it forward

Last week, while watching delicious pictures of Pyrex on Flickr, I noticed that one of my Flickr contacts had bought a 502 refrigerator dish without the lid. This is quite common because the lids get separated or broken…

A couple of hours later, I remembered that I had a stand alone lid and so I thought why not offer it to her and bring a smile to her face? So I wrote her and she happily took it.

Same afternoon, I wrote an ebay seller to inquire about shipping charges for a Pyrex butter dish (snowflake blue), got my answer but forgot about the auction and didn’t bid and the auction closed (no one got the butter dish)….So I wrote the seller asking if I could purchase the dish in a Buy it now mode-staying legit with Ebay rules.

Well the seller answered: Are you the same Vonlipi from the Pyrex Love flickr group? I really enjoy your pictures! Why don’t you give me your mailing address and I’ll send it to you! It’s on me.

Okay how nice is that? I nearly cried. I was so touched by this gesture. Touched that this nice stranger not only liked my photos, but she would out of the goodness of her heart send me this beautiful piece of Pyrex!

It certainly solidifies my faith in mankind especially in these tough times. It is great that you spread love and good vibes around. It will come back to you for sure. Gallons and buckets and oodles of good karma.

Thank you Lori

I will never forget your kindness

Damages

I just love Damages!

I watch it on Showcase (Canada)... But i missed the first season :(

The story is sooo deliciously complicated, I'm glad I don't live in that reality! Lol

Everybody has a contract on somebody and most have slept with somebody they have a contract on!

My life is sure simple compared to that!

And if Glenn Close gets more Botox she will officialy be mummyfied!

Quick update

Last post I wrote about the HUGE quantity of Chinese restaurants in Cornwall, Ont. It seems I was exaggerating....Really you say? You ? Vonlipi ,exaggerating??? How could it be???

So for a population of 46,000 there are only 9 Chinese restaurants in Cornwall....Well it seems a lot because on Ile Perrot we are 40,000-50,000 with only 2 Chinese restaurants.....

It might be because of the locations, I don't know! anyways here's another pic of a different place where they serve canadian foods...Now what is canadian foods? I have no idea!!! Beans? Steaks? What exactly qualifies as a canadian food? If you know please leave a comment!!!

On a totally different subject: Fox has decided to produce another show with the Osbournes. You got that right Ozzy and the whole circus....I decided to give it a try and I could only watch it for 10 minutes. It was horrible and lame and like having acid thrown in my eyes!!!

I'm finishing season 6 of Buffy the vampire slayer- very hard season for the Buffy, very depressing...In my opinion she should have stayed with Spike! But I digress! I'm still hunting for Angel seasons 4 and 5 and I'm certainly not loosing hope!

Later faithful readers :)

Cornwall re-loaded

I was lucky enough to go to Cornwall this week.

We first stopped at Rob Mcintosh in Lancaster (gift shop extraordinaire). I very seldom buy stuff there (because of the price and besides I'm in the whole vintage thing...) But if you want to see tons of dishes,glasses,gifts,jewelry and other knick-knacks, by all means go! After back on the 401 until exit 789 and a quick stop at Value Village. There was nothing interesting for us....Then a pit stop at Dollarama for some gum and Scharffen Berger chocolate- yes a buck a bar!!! That is a GOOD deal considering that I see that brand for 4.99$ at regular stores.

We were famished so it was time for Pat's home cooking on Pitt street. You can't miss it the decor is froggy country and of course yellow and green...But Pat has some of the best homemade fresh never frozen french fries...and the coconut cream pie is to DIE for...sigh!

To burn calories, we took a troll on Pitt St, and stopped at Riley's bakery for some Almond tarts and 7 grain bread. Then we thrifted in a couple of secret spots....hehehe! I can't reveal all my sources! LOL

Also everytime I go I'm fascinated by the number of chinese restaurants....I googled the population of Cornwall and it's around 46,000 (a lot more than I thought!) but there's a lot of chinese restaurants nevertheless. I will have to count them someday.

Regarding the pictures: First picture is of a Pyrex 443 Friendship bowl that I found in Cornwall,in a closed flea market (the door was opened) the owner was nice enough to let us browse.

The second picture id of one of my all time favorite restaurant signs: The Jade Garden. It is sooooo retro! I love the colors. I have never been to that place, but we never know...I might try it on another visit....

1 year anniversary

No pictures with this post. Saturday March 28th to the day...I have been free of work for a year.

Now I will return to work eventually, but I still don't know what I want to do. Except that I would very much like to work from home or nearby. 3 hours of daily commute is too much for me.....

I consider myself lucky because I don't HAVE to go back to work right NOW. Dan has a steady paycheck and my unemployement insurance covers the basics. I can't afford luxuries, but as long as the bills are paid. It's okay by me!

Anyways for me it's a question of priority, I don't want to go back to work so we can buy more stuff and load up the credit cards. I'm done with that! Here we don't have any Joneses to keep up with....

I ask God to put me on the right path and he will because he's always there for me, watching over me and guiding my life.

Have a happy day!

Earth hour

Saturday night, nothing good on TV....There's never anything on TV on saturday night. Except SNL and usually too late for little old me!

So what a wonderful occasion to participate in Earth Hour! We went dark from 8:30 to 9:30 last night and spent the time eating microwave popcorn and spying on our neighbors to see if their houses were dark....I live in a small dead end street with only 6 houses and I'm sad to report that only 50% of the residents participated....But I'm positive that next year more will do.

When you think about it every little gesture counts! Shutting off lights when not in use, replacing light bulbs with neon bulbs or LED, recycling, composting, shopping locally...Planting drought resistant plants and even replacing grass with plants that don't require as much water and of course using reusable shopping bags! And those pesky plastic water bottles! We use a Brita to filter our drinking water and the water is sweet and refreshing!

Shopping locally is hard in a cold climate, let's face it we would only eat carrots,potatoes,cabbage and onions in winter(good veggies but lack variety!!!). I try to buy products from my province at least, so now my dishwashing liquid (Bio-Vert)comes from Laval (15 min north of Montreal) and is certified enviromental choice, my powdered soap for the dishwasher (produits ecolo lemieux) is not only biodegredable but made in Montreal and my detergent (La parisienne) has the same provenance. As for the price well they have come a long way, the liquid dish soap and the detergent are really competitively priced and I find them less expensive than 'National Brands' quite often! The powdered dishwasher soap is 8.00$ for 2 kilos and lasts a really long time. So I figure I'm also a winner there!

Doing my part makes sense!

Later!