Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Archives for 2010

Missing out on a great opportunity

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I’m disappointed today. As I said in my previous posts I threw my back out again and it’s really aching.

Unfortunately this means that I probably can’t do something tomorrow that I’ve been looking forward to for about a week.

I was invited to go to the Google Canada offices tomorrow for lunch to discuss my experiences with Adsense and possibly give some suggestions as to how they could make it better.

I was lucky enough to have been invited to the first Canada Google Partner day last October and I was surprised to have been invited to what sounded like a smaller and possibly even more informal gathering at Google so soon (or at all!).

I really want to go, but I don’t think that I can sit for very long with my back the way it is. Hmmm maybe they’d let me lie on the floor? LOL Nah, not going to do that!

Instead of going to Google Canada tomorrow I guess I’ll spend some time working on my websites and blogs and perhaps start searching for unique gifts for dad since Father’s day is coming up soon.

Hopefully I’ll get another invite to Google sometime in the future. Perhaps they’ll have another Partner day this fall? Sigh …





My poor tired husband

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My husband just got home from work a little while ago and he’s exhausted! He’s been taking a few extra shifts from his co-workers over the last few weeks so he’s been working more hours.

I also kept him busy in the garden over the weekend. He was outside with me when he came home from work on Friday and then we put in several hours on Saturday and Sunday in the garden as well.

He’s more tired than usual this evening. I think it’s because they put in a new document management at work and he had to learn how to use it – even though he doesn’t produce many documents as a hospital attendant/ orderly.

If my back wasn’t aching so much I’d cook him up a nice meal … but I think we’re just going to relax and put a frozen pizza in the oven. Hey it’s easy and we don’t eat “fast” food too often.

The garden is a lot of work at this time of year!

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I’ll bet that some of you have been wondering where I disappeared to these last two weeks. Well, I can’t say that I went far! I guess I’ve been in the garden – trimming, tidying and planting, planting, planting!

Oh and recovering from each and every garden outing for a day or two! My back is acting up again and all the bending involved with taking care of a garden is just aggravating things.

It’s so bad today that I can barely get up and walk around. I dreaded taking the dog out a few times today because she tends to pull on the leash … and that makes my back scream!

At least the garden looks fantastic. Almost all of our roses (60 + rose bushes) are in bloom. The lavender is also starting to bloom as is one of our Peony plants and several of our Clematis. Everything looks great.

Our vegetables (well most of them) are planted as well, and with all the hot weather we’ve been having I expect to be eating a lot of salads and using several tomatoes in our meals sometime soon.

Now I have to get to work and do a search for a good price on some Branson tickets for the end of July. Chris’ brother wants to meet us there for a family get together. So we’ll see what I can find.

Ok time to take some Advil and put a heating pad on my back!

I can’t believe he did that!

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I’m starting to wonder if my neighborhood is going downhill.

I live in a nice middle class area where most people seem to take care of their homes and there’s very few break ins or other crime … but still … it’s changed since we moved in almost 9 years ago.

I mean, the other day, after I had taken our dog outside to do her business for the last time that evening – around 11:30 pm, I saw a car stop in front of our house. As I was starting to close our front door I saw a man get out of the drivers side of the car and walk around to the back door on the passenger side.

The man sort of bent over a little bit and I wondered if he was talking to someone in the backseat or if he was leaning in the back window to get something.

I don’t know why I paused at the door to watch him, but I did. Little did I know that my husband who’d just gone upstairs to get ready for bed was watching from the bedroom window as well.

The man stood at the side of the car for a few moment and then walked around the car, got in, and drove off.

My husband called down from upstairs “Did you see what that guy DID?”

I said “no … I just thought he was talking to someone in the backseat.”

Then my husband said:

“That guy just PEED ON HIS CAR!”

“What?”

“He was peeing on his car!”

Who does that? Who pees on their own car … or well, I don’t know if the man owned the car, but still, who pees on the car they’re driving around?

Plus it’s not like I live on a quite side street. It’s fairly busy with cars going by 24 hours a day.

I know sometimes you just have to pee and you might not be in a place where you can easily get to a washroom … but why did the guy pee on his car? Why didn’t he walk into my neighbors yard and pee behind his big maple tree or walk down the side street that’s just beside our house?

Would you ever do that? Pee on your own car I mean?

Anyway … now you can see why I’m wondering if my neighborhood is going downhill. LOL

I got a Kindle!

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Well … I bit the bullet and went and bought a Kindle. I’ve been look at the Kindle and thinking about getting one for at least a year.

Last weekend I finally decided that the time had come to get one. Why .. well maybe it had something to do with the super heavy novel that I’m trying to finish reading (The Girl who played with Fire). The thought of reading it on something that weighs just over half a pound was appealing. I mean, have you see how thick and heavy the novel – The Girl Who Played with Fire is? It must weight four or five pounds!

I ordered the Kindle on Saturday and it arrived last Tuesday – a day earlier than had been estimated. Of course I had to play with my new toy within minutes of it’s arrival.

I had already downloaded a few (21) free Kindle books from Amazon over the weekend. Did you know they have quite a few classics (pre 1923) that they offer for free? They also have a version of kindle for the PC so even if you don’t get an actual Kindle you can still read books created for the Kindle on your computer or even your iPhone or iPad.

The first thing I did with the Kindle was to start reading the instruction manual that came loaded in the Kindle. The Kindle was very easy to figure out, but reading the manual gave me a way to start getting used to using the Kindle and reading a book on a computer like doohickey rather than on paper. It only took me about 10 minutes into the manual to start becoming very comfortable reading on the Kindle.

I still haven’t finished reading the manual. I wanted to get started reading something I was interested in as soon as possible so I transferred the many free books that I’d found on Amazon to my Kindle and later that evening I went shopping for more books – Ones that I actually paid for.

Kindle books come in a wide range of prices. To justify the expense of buying the Kindle I’m trying to get books that are $6 and under … so I guess I won’t be getting any newly published books for a while. I’m in Canada so the prices and deals aren’t as good for me as it is for my American friends. Oh and I’ve also found several other websites where I can download or buy more books that will work on the Kindle.

So I guess I’ll be reading as much as possible in what little spare time I have.

I’m not thrilled with how Amazon is set up for finding Kindle books. If you’re just browsing it’s kind of hard to find books in the price range that you’re interested in. It’s kind of tedious like filling out an employment screening form. I certainly got used to reading on the Kindle faster than I have searching for books I want to read.

Do you have a Kindle or have you tried reading eBooks on your computer, iPhone or iPad? How do you like reading books on something like the Kindle? I’m enjoying it, but I tend to read on my side in bed so I’m terribly afraid of falling asleep and dropping the Kindle only to wake up as it crashes to the floor!

Oh and if anyone knows of some good sites where I can get really good deals on eBooks I’d love to hear about them.

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