Bizzy the Landlady

Well I guess technically in the 21st century I'm actually a landLORD, as we are now foregoing all gender references associated with titles. I spent some time tonight in my newly-vacant basement apartment doing some cleaning to prepare for my next tenant - whoever it may be. My previous tenant was a verrrry young mother with a three-year-old son whose father was a humongous loser and had virtually no interest in his son. She has just moved into a house she bought with her boyfriend of about six months after renting from me for almost two years. Smart, huh?

I took the vacuum to the place, and it looks much better. I'm surprised that she didn't leave more junk for me to haul to the dump, as there were only two garbage bags, a broken crib and mattress and a stack of old magazines left behind. After vacuuming I tried to clean the floor, however her son had taken a pen to the vinyl flooring, and...well...let's just say that he might as well have taken magic marker to it...
I tried scrubbing with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser...nothing. Then I saturated the stains with Clorox bleach cleaner and let it sit for ten minutes, and NOTHING. It didn't even touch it. There are marks like these in a few areas of the floor in the middle of the apartment. If anyone out there has any clue how I can get rid of them, please advise!

Go here for more pics on my basement apartment, and how to contact me if you're interested.

B.G. ;)

King Kong lives

I finally caught this flick at my local AMC theatre before it went to DVD. The kids had been bugging to see it, so my mother and I took them despite my slight misgivings that there may be some frightening scenes. What an amazing movie! Movies like these are why we have overly expensive huge screen theatres and Oscar awards; why we still spend big bucks to go out to the cinema instead of just waiting for it to come to our local Blockbuster so we can rent it and watch it from the comfort of our own couch at home. I was totally blown away by the computer-animated beast and how they were able to give him some very human qualities. The fight scene between King Kong and the T-Rex was one of the best I've ever seen; and the touching moment between beauty and beast on the frozen pond and at the top of the Empire State building will stay with me for a long time. The only thing that would have made it better, for me at least, would be to 1) leave out the stupid gross scenes of the men getting eaten alive by giant carnivorous worms and grasshoppers, and 2) add some sick 3D effects to make the giant ape jump right off the screen! If you haven't already done so, do yourself a favour and run right out now to catch a viewing before its run in the theatres ends. You'll kick yourself if you don't!

B.G. ;)

These are the voyages of Captain Kirk's kidney stone

Jeezus H. Kryste can the world get any weirder??? To think that a) someone would willingly dole out $25K for a 10 karat-sized kidney stone that Shatner passed and b) that Shatner, who I thought was as bizarre as people get, would outdo himself and break new ground in the field of poor taste and even entertain the idea of putting the disgusting item up for auction just completely befuddles me. I have decided that I don't want to be a part of this human race anymore...please stop the planet and let me off.

B.G. ;)

Here I go again...

I've finally finished unpacking from my trip down south, and I'm off again tomorrow morning to Ottawa on business for the week. Good thing I enjoy travelling.

My trip to Hot Springs, AR was mostly to help out my sis with her new baby twins, but we did manage to squeeze in a little R&R. We checked out bathhouse row early on New Year's Eve. Too bad we didn't have a babysitter lined up, as the Arlington Hotel was hosting a cool shindig. It woulda been neat to check that out. It was a gorgeous day like an indian summer, yet the steam was coming off the hot springs as if it was below zero. The architecture inside some of the bathhouses was magnificent. The height of their popularity was between 1900 and 1940, and there is only one bathhouse still in operation today. Al Kapone is rumoured to have visited both the Arlington Hotel and the bathhouses often when he passed through the Hot Springs area. It is said that the hot water coming out of the ground has been deep in the earth's crust for thousands of years, and is thought to have significant healing properties. Before and after our sojourn to Hot Springs we climbed the West and East Mountains to take in the view. It is largely a wooded mountain, and a couple of days after we were there there were severe brush fires in the area that nearly burned out of control. The ground is so dry and arid that they have had to enforce burn bans to avoid forest fires from ravaging the area.

We celebrated New Year's quietly at home and played Texas Hold 'Em between bottle feeds. Exciting stuff! Actually it was nice not having to get all dressed up and go out somewhere for a change. We watched the Ball drop at Times Square, and then hit the hay right after midnight.

Other than the necessary trips to Walmart for sundries and provisions, we didn't do a whole lot of shopping. However Pam did take me out to the mall so I could get my Bath and Body Works fix! We SO need one of those in Canada! No trip to the States is complete without a stop at the BBW!

We did stop to check out a State Park with a lake named after MOI to see where the water level was at. Being as dry as it is, and not having had a decent rainfall in gawd knows how long, the lake was understandably lower than normal. You can see the dock at the right of the photo to see where the water level should be at. Shocking to see how much water is missing.

At any rate, it was a great trip, and although I didn't get much sleep I did come back recharged and rejuvenated after almost three weeks off work. I will not travel late in the day again, however, after BOTH of my flights were delayed significantly. I didn't get home until almost 1am on Monday, and had to get up to go right back to work only five and a half hours later! I also vow to leave myself at least a day to decompress before I have to jump right back into the old routine again. Sheesh.

My trip to Ottawa promises to be paced a bit differently, and I don't know if I'll be able to do any sightseeing as I'll be working most of the time. But I do hope to have a little fun while in our nation's capital. I'll be home Friday night so there'll be lots of time to settle back in before Monday. And if I've got the ambition I just might get started on my bathroom...

B.G. ;)

A quiet weekend at home

I finally got my unpacking done today...sheesh. The boys are here this weekend and we're going to see The Chronicles of Narnia this afternoon. After that we are heading over to Mum's place for a Saturday dinner of fish & chips. Tomorrow we'll head over to Jen's for a visit with her and little Ashley. I bought her a cute little t-shirt that has wild baby hogs on it that says 'Future Arkansas Razorback'. It's adorable.

I bought a copy of 'Digital Photography for Dummies' so I can learn how to use the bells and whistles on my camera that I haven't figured out yet. The manual tells me how to change the aperture and shutter speed settings, but it doesn't tell me WHY I might want to do these things. I think I have figured out that if my shutter speed is faster I need the flash and my photos will be less blurry, but if I increase the aperture it allows more light in and you may need a tripod to minimize shake? Here is a shot of my kitty with increased aperture and no flash. I was resting the camera on the bed to reduce shake. Not bad, eh?

I have lots of other photos I took during my trip and at Christmas. I have them all on my Flickr account. Feel free to check them out!

I met Mum for lunch yesterday. As we were leaving we ran into an old boyfriend of mine who now works in the mall where my office is. My girlfriend and I used to 'borrow' (steal is more like it) her mother's car without her permission and take joy rides into Scarborough to hang out with him and his friends. One day we got caught, and I was sent to live with my father in Sutton to avoid being charged (it was all my fault, you see - my girlfriend's mother felt I was a bad influence on her daughter when she really had no idea what a rebel her child was). We subsequently broke up, but recently met up again on the job and have been fast friends ever since. The funny thing is that I am WAY out of his league now, and would never consider getting with him again. Yet when we were in our teens he was the cat's ass and I couldn't get enough of him. Who knew? As we were leaving I joked to Mum that the incident was all his fault, causing him to squirm uneasily and hurry on his way. Relaaaaax, dude: it was half our lives ago...it's all water under the bridge now!

B.G. ;)

So THIS is how to do a title!

I really need to find the time to sit down and figure out how to navigate this site better. I wish I wasn't so darn BIZZY, but I'm a little backlogged now since returning home from my trip. I have so many photos I want to share and so many things I want to blog about, yet such little time!

I am going to have to put an ad in the paper to find a new tenant for my basement apartment, as it is going to be vacant very soon. I had someone sort of lined up for it, but she has decided that she should stay where she is and won't be moving. Sucks because she was someone who was referred to me by a reliable person, and it is so hard to find quality tenants in Ontario with the blasted Tenant Protection Act we have in place. It pretty much gives a landlord ZERO recourse to evict a problem tenant. You REEEAALLLLY want to make sure you have the right person before you go signing any agreements. Aie yie yie...

So I have uploaded all the photos I possibly can to my Flickr account. I am already out of bandwidth for the month. Drat. Guess I'll have to fork over the yearly fee to get the unlimited option. I have quite a few photos since getting my new digicam, and to say that I'm a little snap-happy would be a bit of an understatement. But when the subjects are THIS cute, how can an auntie resist???

B.G. ;)

New Year...new blog space

I have noticed that bloggers on MSN Spaces often have other blog sites elsewhere. I have often wondered why this is so, and so here I am to follow suit and see how having another blog space will enrich my blogging experience. My main blog site represents hours upon hours of blood, sweat and tears that I have spent turning the site into something meaningful and personal for me. However, having witnessed so many people on MSN randomly losing their blogs for no apparent reason, I am rapidly losing confidence in the site, and flirting with other sites on which to pen my thoughts, peeves and personal opinions and inferences on life in general.

I am currently staying at my sister, Pam's place in Hot Springs, AR. I am here to assist her in managing her new twin daughters, and to help her establish some sort of routine. I will have been here almost two weeks by the time I leave on Sunday afternoon.

Hot Springs is a spa city. The infamous bathhouse row is what the downtown core is best known for. It is said that a syphilis-ridden Al Kapone himself would visit the city just for a renowned therapeutic bath in one of the many such establishments that line the street - only one of which is still in operation today. Tourists can walk up to and wade about in the many open hot springs from which warm, steamy water flows freely. It is quite a sight to behold.

The weather is lovely and warm here in the bible belt. It is currently sitting at 59 degrees, and has been as high as more than 70. Hard to believe it's the dead of winter back home. I'm not looking forward to returning to the harsh Canadian climate, and to my ultra-stressful job!

B.G.