Everyone should Read this Book

Right now. It's fantastic, a must read. You won't be able to put it down. I finally got around to reading it on the plane on Sunday, and although it is incredibly sad (I was sobbing and running out of kleenex), you will learn a lot and it will certainly make you appreciate your life. I look forward to future books by this author.

A Quick Trip to the Sunshine State

I scooted across the country to Orlando for a couple of days of work. It always amazes me how I can go to Florida and not see the ocean, beach, DisneyWorld, etc., but I fly into the Orlando airport, work in the interior of the state and fly out. One of these days ......... It certainly does a body good to feel lovely warm humid air, smell flowers, see green grass. Hopefully those things will come to my neighborhood sometime soon!

Turning Forty Eight ............

Ack, not sure how I got this old, but I sure don't feel 48! I think having small kidlets keeps me young. ;-) First of all, just in case any of you have living under a rock and have missed the youtube video of Susan Boyle (It's got over 11 million hits by this morning), check this out. She is almost exactly my age, singing at Britain's got Talent. It is so inspiring and just brings such a huge smile to my face. I can't seem to figure out how to add the video, but here's the link. Go watch it, you will be singing all day! Susan Boyle video

I liked what Crystal did on her blog for her birthday, so I will lift some of it. Thanks for the idea, Crystal!

Five places I travelled last year:
Mayan Riviera
Chicago
Denver
Anaheim
Jasper

Four Places I plan on going this year:
Radium Hot Springs
Drumheller
Guelph, Ontario and neighboring cities ;-)
Mayan Riviera or Cuba


Five books I want to read:
The Gargoyle
Still Alice
Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh
Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby
The Private Patient by P.D. James

Five things I have to be thankful for:
two adorable boys and a supportive husband
a great, very flexible job
my continued good health
wonderful friends that are always there for me
the fact that spring (knock on wood) is finally here

Five things on my "to do" list for the next few months:
take a course on macro photography
sign up for a wine appreciation class
walk regularly and get more exercise
diligently back up all my digital photos and make hard copies of most of them
scrapbook a page about me

Thanks for reading. The wet snowstorm the other day, and subsequent power surges seems to have completely fried our VCR, so I guess I had better go shopping for a new one today! A birthday present to me ........... Hope they still make them! We still have a lot of kid's tapes we watch, and we like to tape Survivor and Amazing Race in another time zone so we can watch it earlier in the evening and fast forward through commercials.

Brad Storage

Last month, I saw the coolest brad storage idea ever! Check these out - to me, they look like art! And I love seeing supplies on display, it makes them more likely to be used! These cork boards (previously inexpensive cork trivets) belong to my my friends Leanna and Sharon, who got the idea from a Memory Makers storage idea book. I love the idea, but of course, when I got to the store, there was nary a cork board in sight, so I came home with a great big piece of white foam board from Dollarama. I cut it into 6x8" pieces with a craft knife, and you know, it works pretty well! It is not as thick as cork, and doesn't have as much resiliency, but the brads are very easy to push in, and they seem to stay put. I have been doing a bit at a time when I watch TV. I did eventually find some cork trivets at Ikea, and I think I might use those for the supersize brads, but it is much harder to push some of those little brads into the firm cork, so I think I'll stick with my cheapo foam board for the majority of my collection. The pieces are easy to prop up for easy viewing, and easy to take to crops.

It's (almost) over

I have to say, teaching is very interesting. I've learned a lot. This is my second time through teaching a university course on Waste Management and Utilization. Very different from the first time, but part of that is that last year, the course was taught three times a week for 50 minutes, and this time I have one big three hour chunk of time in the evening. Keeping everyone's interest and attention for three hours at night is a bit of a challenge. Among other things, I tried using dvd's and video clips, guest speakers, and student presentations. And lots of short breaks. I also had a smaller class this year(32 versus 55 students), so that made it a bit nicer for discussions and marking!

I (of course) think Waste Management is a fascinating topic - we cover municipal landfills, and sewage sludge, and wastes from oil and gas, oil sands, coal combustion, manure, nuclear waste, electronic waste, you name it, we probably do it. It is fascinating (and sometimes kinda scary) to know details about all the wastes we generate in our society and what we do with them.

I guess one of my main objectives when teaching the course (besides teaching the basics) was to try to make the students think about all the philosophical aspects of waste management. The unfortunate aspect of living in our society is that we generate a lot of waste and it has to go somewhere. Everything boils down to a cost/benefit analysis if we are to continue our lifestyle. Oil extraction and upgrading so we can drive our cars generates a lot of waste. Burning coal so we can turn on the lights generates waste. Making fertilizer so the world has enough food generates waste. Flushing the toilet generates waste. All that poop has to go somewhere! Is it better to spread it on land and utilize the nutrients, or should we bury it away out of sight, out of mind in a landfill nobody wants so that it can potentially generate toxic leachate and methane gas for many decades? Tough questions. No good answers.

There are benefits and disadvantages to any option for waste management. The only sure thing is that we continue to generate waste at a phenomenal rate. Definitely food for thought as you toss out that disposable water bottle, turn on the computer, flush the toilet.

March Scraptivity Kit

Well, what can I say? I have subscribed to the Scraptivity monthly kits again. I miss getting my pizza box every month with fun new scrapbooking stuff, and the kits are such great value with the patterned papers and cardstock, stamps, embellishments and techniques. The stamp sets are currently being designed by My Stamp Box and they look fabulous. The March kit was right up my alley with a very masculine/distressed theme and featured patterned papers from a company I was not familiar with, Scrap within Reach. The papers are wonderful to work with - heavy and double sided. April features Heidi Swapp specialty papers and Invisibles and two small bottles of Glimmer Mist, so if you have not tried this amazing product, it is time to get your feet wet! :-)

This is the first layout I have done with the March kit - mommy time seems hard to come by in the last few weeks. Everything is from the kit except the title block - I grabbed a fabric remnant out of my stash and stamped on it with StazOn brown ink. I had some fun with my sewing machine too, stitching around each photo and the fabric. The kit comes with a Heidi Swapp distressing tool, which I had never tried before, but it sure is a cool little gizmo! Love the look it gives to paper edges!

So many books, so little time..........

hmmm, what to read first? I haven't actually read much fiction at all over the last few years. No time and a short attention span. :-) But I think joining a book club was a good idea, it's kind of got me going again. This time around, the book club is doing the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.



I quite liked it, especially the opportunity to visualize Afghanistan under the Taliban, so I got the author's second book out of the library. It currently sits unread.



I'm halfway through this one. Love it. A story about life in a Depression era circus. Might have to buy it because I am reading it so slow!


My friend Roni lent me this one. I'm almost scared to read it, sounds depressing as all get out. A woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimers......... written by a neuroscientist. Supposed to be a fantastic book, but I think I might need a box of Kleenex handy.



Today my friend Linda bought me this book that she said is a must read! So that's the stack on my night table. It's tough to decide what to reach for in the few minutes a day I have been reading. I've got a business trip coming up to the eastern U.S, so I should be able to finish at least one on the plane. Nothing like being trapped in a great metal tube for actually getting something accomplished. ;-)