I'm back!

I cannot believe that it's been over a month since I last posted. I've run into a creative/communicative block. I'd better get it back soon - by next weekend, in fact, since Micheal deMeng is flying up to Toronto to give 2 workshops. I find myself intimidated - his work is so fabulous. Well, we'll see what happens.



Meanwhile all my supplies for the projects I want to do are strewn all over the living/dining room. Much is in plastic bags which Tayoh (one of my cats) licks constantly. She became a bag-licker since 2 years of age. She's now 6 and still licking.



The weather here is unseasonably hot. My building shut off our a/c and turned on the heat on Sept. 24. It's about 82F in the apartment and rising since it is now 30 degreesC outside and the humidex is 39C. ( sorry that my thermeter is in Fahrenheit and thus the inconsistency in jabbering about the weather). My internal thermostat just can't handle this. The leaves on the trees are refusing to change colour and the few maples that have started are sporting rusty burnt leaves. I think it's the lack of rain this summer. Everything is wonky. Including my hair. The humidity always converts my smoothing attempts to a mass of frizz resembling a wad of steel wool. Yuck, I hate it. I have to wait another 2 weeks before going to my hairdresser. I have more products than you can imagine claiming to stop the frizz. I've used them all to no avail. But they smell nice so I use each of them on a rotating basis.

Dog days updated

I went for my workout this afternoon with my trainer and asked him if he knew the meaning of 'the dog days of summer'. Instantly he rattled of a complicated meaning. Here's the gist:

"Well, the dog star is actually Sirius which is the brightest star in the night sky and it does rise and set with the Sun at some times during the year - when it does this it is said to be in conjunction with the Sun.
Since Sirius is the brightest star that we can see in the sky, it might be thought reasonable to guess that it adds some heat to the Earth when it is in the sky, although that amount is now known to be insignificant.
The name "dog star" came from the ancient Egyptians who called Sirius the dog star after their god Osirus, whose head in pictograms resembled that of a dog. In Egypt, and in ancient Rome, Sirius was in conjunction with the Sun in the summer (ie. it was up in the sky at the same time as the Sun) and ancient Egyptians and Romans argued that it was responsible for the summer heat by adding its heat to the heat from the Sun.
The called the period of time from 20 days before to 20 days after the conjunction "the dog days of summer" because it coincidentally fell at the time of year when it was very hot.
The exact time of conjunction changes with the precession of the equinoxes so that now the conjunction of Sirius with the Sun is a little earlier in the northern summer than it was during Roman times, and as time passes it will move out of the summer season altogether (note: the conjunction is in the southern winter (both now and in Roman times), so ancient civilizations in the southern hemisphere could not have come up with this myth). "
August 2002, Jagadheep D. Pandian (more by Jagadheep D. Pandian), Karen Masters (more by Karen Masters)

I've read some gruesome stories about brown dogs being sacrificed to the dog star. Downright evil. If you have a brown dog, hide him until mid September.

Dog days of summer

So here I sit in the air conditioned comfort of my home and watch the temperature rising on the Google sidebar. So far it's up to 30 and it's not even 2:00 pm. It's actually been a good summer - very little rain and very little humidity. Nonetheless my hair continues to frizz despite low humidity readings. Either the meteorologists are all lying or I've undergone yet another signal of change of life.

Time has rushed forward. How does that happen... The older you get the faster the days turn over. And what are "the dog days of summer"? Are dogs tired from the heat? Do they start to shed their coats as the days get shorter? What for? That shedding business doesn't seem to make sense since they should actually grow a thicker coat to cope with the cold weather.

What about cat owners. Do they have days worth commenting on? The cat days of summer ? Now mine have certainly started shedding. After scooting around with my Dustbuster sucking up the thousand clumps of fur scattered all over the floor, within 5 minutes I have even more of them rolling around. They seem to shed at the beginning of every season. This doesn't seem fair to me who is still holding out for an honorary doctorate in vacuuming. If the girls do a good job licking, I then have to clean up the barf. There's no winning.

Computer Illiterate?

I've decided to open a shop on Etsy to feature and sell some of the art projects I've been working on. Ask me how many hours I spent just trying to put up a banner. Thousands, I'm sure. Even with coaching I failed. I have about 3 photo software programs to use and each of them had the required information missing. What the hell do they want? So I finally downloaded Photo Elements 5 and managed to find a language that Etsy likes and so it's been uploaded. I don't even like it but it's a start. This morning I started puttin a few things up and I've made spelling mistakes and missed crucial boxes. This I started at 10:00 and it's now after 1:00. Must go for my walk before I gain another 10 lbs from sitting in front of the computer. Not sure if I'll be able to make a link but I'll try.http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5110043

Where have all the birds gone?

There have been no visitations to the bird seed cup in a week now. Are they sick of the menu? Have I killed them off by changing their diet? Have they been threatened by their flockmates? I'm deeply distressed by there absence.

On a brighter note, I had today the most delightful coffee meeting with Colette. She's such a darling and so easy to talk to. You can tell that she is sensitive and has a wonderful way of expressing herself in the written word. Go see her blog (linked in the sidebar). She has given me invaluable advice on how to set up an Etsy shop and I will let you know when I'm in the groove. Does any one know what Etsy stands for?

New Computer

Well, I received my new computer Monday afternoon. I spent the equivalent of 1 days worth of hours trying to set up my email programme. I called Rogers for help - they did help me configure 2 programs but I still couldn't mail out. Next I called Dell thinking that they would know what was going on having sold me the computer. They only deal in hardware at this point and they told me to call Rogers. By now I'm in tears - what a baby. So I phoned Rogers again and now my email is working better than ever. I guess it depends on which technician you get. I'm also trying to figure out this Vista business. The layout is different. So is accessing other drives or folders. And then there's the constant nagging windows asking if I really want to do something or asking for my name and password. Is this carrying security too far?

Tayoh went to the vet yesterday to have that tooth (see below) examined. She has a condition only seen in cats and is untreatable. It's called FORL - feline odontoclastic resorptive lesion. Whatever. As long as she's not in pain. Otherwise her teeth are perfect - not one bit of plaque which is unusual in that breed. The night before, she couldn't open her eye and was diagnose to have an infection which required a shot of antibiotic. And since we were there and she's coughed 3 times since her last visit 6 weeks ago, she had her shot of cortisone (for asthma). She seemed a bit terrorized for having 2 injections but her vet is so wonderful. This is just like having a kid (I'm guessing) and also loved the same way.

Where's the tooth fairy

So, last night as I'm on my hands and knees plucking up the day's clumps of cat hair, paper shards and random beads what do I find? A tiny tooth. Must be a cat tooth since all of mine are still intact. At first I thought it must be Amber since she's older and has gum disease. And I managed to peek inside her mouth for verification. No evidence of a recently missing tooth. That leaves Tayoh. Somehow I managed to open her mouth and found that her lower left fang had been replaced by a healed over gum. I felt so terrible that I hadn't noticed any clues and wondered if she was in terrible pain. It looks like the root was left behind. I must phone the vet to see if this warrants a shot of antibiotic. My poor little Tayoh. Not so fierce as she pretends to be...