Our warmest wishes for 2004

* Click for actual size

Wishing each and everyone of you the best of 2004.
Hoping you all have a wonderful, festive and safe New Years.
Our love, kisses and squishes
hugin & munin

Born. Eat. Shag...

The Mayfly Project: "Born. Eat. Shag. Die."
sum up your year in 20 words or less.

Stressed. Worked. Learnt. Taught.
Discovered. Created. Photographed. Explored.
Laughed. Cried. Forgave. Grew. Appreciated.
Was Inspired. Dreamed. Loved Throughout.

Words of the year. *

Some of my favourite, if somewhat off the wall, ones include:

desk-Yeti - similar to a desk monkey (someone who spends all day working) but rarer; in fact so rare they have never been seen.

Fauxmosexual/metrosexual - young, Beckham-like man, who in terms of grooming, style, sensitivity and culture appears to be gay, but actually sleeps with women
(Suggested by reader Justin, UK)

hammer time - start of war, as predicted by US Vice Admiral Timothy Keating. "Make no mistake, when the president says go - look out, it's hammer time

intexicated - drunken text messages will be sent by the inebriated.
(Suggested by reader George, UK)

poxy moron - a person wearing a "happy to help" badge but who actually isn't anything of the sort (typically a zit-covered shop assistant who has no idea where anything is)
(Suggested by reader A Greenwood, UK)

recreational assistant - politically correct term for drug dealer
(Suggested by reader Julian, UK)

self-dating - euphemism for masturbating, according to GB Trudeau's Doonesbury

unknown unknowns - things we don't know that we don't know, according to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
(Suggested by reader Terry Jarvis, England)

Lazy days.

Only four lazy days left and then the weekend. Times seems to be racing on, tumbling helter-skelter back to the days of toil, elbow grease and long hour shifts. Looking back at the past few days I am not sure where they hours have disappeared to, but I know that they where well spent in the company of those I love. The holiday season was celebrated in our usual style, with much love and laughter, joyful gift giving and our annual Christmas brunch*. Movies were watched, games were played, books were read, snuggling occurred in massive happy quantities and we even managed to post a sprinkling of pictures.

To put it in a nutshell, Christmas/Chanukah rocked. Part of me just can't wait till next year, so that we could celebrate it again.

It's Xmas

And the prezzies were fine.
Many nice things received and hopefully received by others also.

Just returned from a mild boxing day walk.
Popped into a place to see if they had any specials on stuff and walked out with this.

And so Xmas is well and truly here with much good joy and warmth to be had.
Have to do some more wandering around tomorrow and test out the new gift while watching everyone else scurry around for their own batch of savings.

Tata.

Twas the night before...

Wishing you all the merriest of holidays, may this seasons festivities be filled with much merriment, laughter, love and joy.

Our warmest wishes to you all.
squishes and kisses
Hugin and Munin

...and to all a Good Night!
'Twas the night before, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse*

It is Done

And I have done it.

Yes, Xmas shopping is over, and the stocking is stuffed.
Well, by my standards it is... hmm... that is to say that it has reasonable stuff in it that shall be enjoyed, even if it is not full to overflowing.

Now I'm not talking heaps of gifts, just a few that shall serve well. Generally don't spend a boatload on presents because well, we are woefully lacking in the boat department. But it's about the giving, right?

Was totally uninspired this xmas, had really no idea what to get for Munin. That is to say that I got one thing no problem, knew what to get. Another I had an idea and that sort of was tempered by a rather veiled hint (involving poking and pointing) and the last...

Well the last one had me going for a little while, totally unsure what to get. I was making lists, prioritizing them, looking at store possibilities.

Walk into said store, wander around for 15 minutes and walk out empty handed and dejected. Not a good place to be on Xmas.

However, I thought of something nice, and hope it will be enjoyed.

But that means a little more waiting and at times like these I echo the sentiment of Inigo Montoya, `I hate waiting.'

It's terrible, time goes through many strange contortions that at other times would be great, but at this time... it just seems to pass soooo sloooowwwwwlllllyyyyyyyyyy.

And no prezzies until Xmas day. Although Munin wants to do what for her is the traditional one gift opening on Xmas-Eve. So maybe might do that, if she pouts enough about it ;)

Personally I am against it, but right about now...
And I've been teasing her at every opportunity to be able to open some. I'd spring for the Channukah tactic, but I'm a little short on presents to be able to hold up my side in that little tactic, so I've let that one slip by.

Which basically means, the clock is ticking, the prezzies are sitting and I am staring at them with a most pathetic:

"My precioussses..."

Miss Poopey head.

After a long bout of laziness, procrastinations and general slothlike behaviour we have finally managed to get the cards written, scrawled in, stamped and posted. My sincerest apologies go out to all those who were expecting a card. With any luck you should be getting them mid-holidays, though I am still hoping for some snail mail miracle that will get them to you just in time for the holidays. So for now just call me, Miss Poopey head, and hopefully next year I won’t leave the holiday card sending spree to the last possible moment.

*Squishes*
A much abashed Munin.

Xmas Party

Well, that was a lot of fun.

Prizes (which consisted for both Munin and I of a cake predominately involving marzipan so I understand), music and dancing from Munin and I, bad music and no dancing from me. Open bar, quite fun although the bartender was rather grumpy! Food and fun.

I still have dancing going through my system, so that's a good sign... I think! :D

Words from the wise.

When one is faced with the possibility of attending a rip roaring if subdued Christmas party, one should remember to take the following day off from work so that the fuzzy cottony brain feeling does not impede with any form of coherent thought. Especially if one has a project due, and lucid thought is a necessary and vital requirement needed to ensure that one does not write in long muddled run on sentences and that the final product is legible and does not contain the words. ‘My ode to Coffee.’ ‘Where did I put my bleeping Advil?’ and ‘Who stole my stole my brains?’

Honey bear

Should a girl worry when her very close, very male, dear friends start calling her beloved boy, schnookems? It makes a girl wonder...

quiet time.

Haven't felt much like talking these past few days. This state of non verbal’ness occurs often just before the holiday season, when free is short time, the work hours are long and hours are spent scuttling about trying to get everything up and ready for the holidays. Home becomes a haven of quite time; the couch becomes a place of refuge where one can regroup and words that once flowed between loved ones become succinct, short and muddled as one tries to convey what one means through a veil of bone tired brain numbing fog. In short, I have lost the art of speech, of finding the right words, of writing in long flowery, garish and at times coherent sentences. The holidays can’t come too soon. Wait, strike that, still too much left to do. Lets rephrase that. I look foreword to the holidays, when the haze of fatigue will no longer plague my mind and when the words I knew so well will grace me with their presence once again. I look forward to the time when thought, and stories will flow onto paper once again, a long tumbling river of evocative images.

In the meantime we've added some more pictures to our photolog. Hopefully we'll have some more up by the weekend.

"work from home" free card.

If there was ever a day to use the ”work from home” card, this would have been the day. My usual 45 minute morning trip to work landed up taking an hour and 45 minutes. Blarg. I am not looking forward to battling the masses, snow and slow transportation tonight.

An UnBirthday Birthday.

The wonderful, effervescent and deliciously eloquent Liz celebrated her birthday yesterday! Happy belated Birthday Liz!!! Hope you had a wonderful day, filled with much love, laughter, and all things wonderful. Wishing you all your hearts desires. Many, many happy returns.

Go give her some Birthday loving!

Tic Toc

If one more man tells me that my biological clock is ticking. And then goes on to state that they think it is time that I consider settling down, getting married and having kids I will not be held responsible for outright decking them. What is it with men and the ever-ticking women’s biological clock?

Furthermore, anyone who tells me that the man I love is abnormal because they have not settled down, purchased a house, expensive car or bought into societies decree that all men should have found exactly what they want to be by the time they reach the venerable age of 18*, can kindly shove their opinion where the sun don’t shine. Thank you.

*At 31 I'm still trying to figure out if Engineering is what I want to do with the rest of my life.[grumble]

Distraction

Things you do when you don't feel like working. [Though I should really buckle down and get my arse back in gear.] Where's Willy

Is the day over yet?

Fnarg. Not a good day for deadlines or any attempt at coherent thought. I just can't seem to focus on anything that requires more then five seconds of scant attention. Thoughts of running wild keep popping into me head, accompanied by the need to curl up under blankets and sleep, blissfully dreaming of high sea adventure.

Pirates and Buccaneers

I know we’ve had this conversation before. It is one that comes up occasionally, especially after an instalment of 'swash swash buckle buckle' pirate movie watching.

I have a weak spot for pirates, rogues, rangers and …erm …elves. [Hangs head in mock shame. Yes I know they technically don’t exist, but maybe, just maybe in the deepest forests of the Amazon there lives a community of elves.] Hugin is of the opinion that if he were given a choice he would rather be a buccaneer then a pirate. His reasoning for this is that essentially he feels that he is a good person, with a strong moral standing and cannot see himself being a black-hearted evil self-serving pirate. I on the other hand can very much see myself as a black-hearted evil pirate. The reason for thus is that the idea of being a buccaneer does not sit well with what I envision them. To me they are mercenaries, pure and simple. People who have sold out not for a cause but because they are seeking to gain riches, in other words they do it for cold hard cash.

Truly told, my romanticism of pirates has to do with the fact that they are living under their own rules, accountable to no one but their crews [if they are good swashbuckling pirate captains] but more so is the idea of freedom. The romantic rebel in me yearns to throw down societies yoke of hypocritical morality and head out onto the ocean, to sail amongst the continents, living by my own set of rules, exploring the worlds that I have not yet seen. I think I love what our beloved Captain Jack Sparrow said. “What a ship represents is freedom.”

Merry Airmail.

Having fallen into a slump of unending procrastination, we have not yet been able to get our holiday greetings posted much less written. So it is in this vain that I offer our sincerest apologies and hope that we shall have them out the door this weekend, which in turn would hopefully mean, that they will reach you by the 24th. [That is of course if the pigeons don't get lost ;o) ]

There are a few addresses that we are missing so if you, you, you, you, you, you and you too would be so kind as to email them to us, it would be greatly appreciated. I know that I am forgetting a few wonderful people, so if you would like a card from the great white north, just drop us a line. Hopefully we will get them to you all on time.

Tis the season of lists and blank stares.

It’s getting harder and harder to come up with ideas of what I want for Christmas. As Lively Lexis so aptly put it, “I'm at an age where present-exchanging has become virtually impossible. I don't really need anything in the price-range acceptable for gift-giving. If I need it, I buy it”.

Hugin and my dad have been hounding for weeks, trying to get me to provide them with a Christmas lists of items that they may procure, think about and muse over. The only thing that I can come up with when cornered into finally answering the question was, a steady paying job, with a decent salary, benefits and vacation time “and world peace…*” Which to be forthright is not any sort of reasonable request.

Other then that, the other items that I can think of are plane tickets to someplace exotic, interesting and warm, a 24 footer of the wooden floating kind with sails, another camera of the digital SLR variety or, erm, plane tickets to somewhere warm, sunny, with lots of things to see and experience. These frankly do not fall into the category of affordable gift request. So it’s back to the musing for me, and the pestering from loved ones as to what I would like and if all else fails this list still exists.

But love, even if you can't find anything on my list, and even if I can't think of something that falls into the reasonable list. What I want most for Christmas is to spend it with you.

Remember

In remembrance of the fourteen women who lives ended 14 years ago. In hopes that this will never happen again, and that one day soon women will no longer live in fear.

* National Day of Remembrance & Action on Violence Against Women

Dentistry 2

Well, it's over and done with.
Time to share.

I'm not totally recovered yet, my jaw won't open all the way comfortably, so my yawns sort of become pseudo-grimaces, but other than that and the occasional little twinge, doing well.

So I didn't know what to expect going to the oral surgeon's place with Munin and an xray of my jaw.

Went in, filled out a form which had a lot of blanks under allergies to various medicines... (shrug) never had them, who can say? Handed them my xray and waited a little bit.

Few minutes later, in I go. Tearful farewells were cut short as I was unceremoniously dragged into the operating area by a squad of muscular pygmies in white tiger skins... hmm... no that's not right.

So I went in and sat down, looking at the dentist's chair.

Minute later in comes the surgeon, I have a seat in `the chair' and he says he'll take a look at what seems to be a simple impacted tooth with a cavity. Quick glance in my mouth, `yup that is what it is.'

Then comes the needle, "we'll just freeze up that area, you'll feel a little sting as the needle goes into the gum," funny didn't really feel anything... cool. Then the needle goes out and back in and back in and "now we'll freeze the nerve," (warning bells!!!)... nope, didn't feel anything really... a little odd sensation but that's it.

"We'll give that about five minutes and see how you are doing."

Off he goes.

Cool... Relax... wait for it... Huh.

(time passes)
(time passes)

Cool.

In he comes again just as I notice my lip going a bit funny and my tongue as well.

"Is your lip getting numb, and your tongue?"

Damn, that's eerie, like he's done it before...

Anyways, there is also a `nurse?' Not sure if that would be the right word, but ok.

So they look around, say some things and then.

"We'll get started now, if you feel anything or the like just raise your left hand."

I consider this calmly. Look at it from a performance versus risk perspective and proceed to recross my hands, this time with the left over the right.

Then away they go.
A bit of a saw thingy; I'm guessing since I couldn't see anything.
A few polite requests to, "tilt your jaw down."

"Now you will feel some tugging."
"Put some stitches in, they'll dissolve so you don't have to come back in."

And about five minutes later, "done."

Whoa.
Cool.

I get a bit of gauze, and am told some things I should and shouldn't do. I nod appreciatively and basically forget them. Thankfully there is a paper with them on it.

So out I go. Back to see Munin after having been gone maybe 15 minutes at most.

Pay some ungodly amount of money if it was worked out by the hour. And I am free to go pick up pain killers and anti-biotics.

Nice little walk, go do that and then head home.
Feeling pretty good with the novocaine. Take a pain killer for when that wears off and settle into waiting.

Munin has to go off to work and I'm doing ok, so no problems!

Of course 6 hours later I'm doing some quite imitations of a very unhappy cat as I take my second painkiller.

But after that hump and a couple teabags in my mouth everything is pretty good.

I ended up taking three of the painkillers and am running through my antibiotics so as to avoid creating super-virus' and that's my story.

It's a bit annoying trying to eat something that is large, so small bites it is as I am in day 4. The extraction was Monday morning.

I'm trying to be careful about stitches etc, but it would be nice to get a decent lionesque yawn in... oh well, in time...

But it's done. Glad that it is done. I'm impressed and glad I had such a good experience.

Anyways, thanks for listening :D

hibernation seems like a good plan

Waking up to a clogged bath tub drain, which requires a good 5 minutes of bailing cold frigid water is not what i consider to be the start of a good morning. Waking up to a clogged drain, which requires a good 5 minutes of bailing glacially frigid waters when you are already late and need to do the quick step-into-shower-turn-around-while-lathering-up-a-la-tasmanian-devil and then stubbing your toes on the clothes rack as you search for a clean dry shirt is definitely not a good way to start of the day. Fneh. I think I am going to call it a day and crawl back into our warm cave of a bed and pretends that it's the weekend. Could someone please wake me next spring!

simple math

Hugin's teasing me with regards to my math skills. He just doesn’t believe me when I say that 8 minus 8 equals 12.

Link and Think

There are 40 million people living with AIDS/HIV today. 14 million children have been orphaned by the disease. 3 million people have died. How many more orphans, how many more deaths before we start working together to help bring an end to this disease that ravages the lives of so many?

World aids day

De-mystify sex. Promote safe sex. Protection is the only solution! " - Raje, Canada. [BBC]

There are so many people living in the world today, coping with the knowledge that they may one day succumb to a disease that has taken their family, their friends and those that they hold dear. There are others who face a daily battle, who's only life line is a cocktail of drugs that keeps their worst fears at bay and there are others who die alone, in dark corners forgotten by those who they once called family, shunned and ostracized from the society that once held them dear.

Aids and HIV are not faceless diseases. They are not ones that live in regions unknown. They strike without prejudice, whether the person is a child, teen, adult or the venerabley aged. Aids touches the lives of daughter and sons, husband and wives. Mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers. In your own home, the neighbour next door, the child who plays on your street or a person who lives a thousand miles away. There are so many stories, so many people, brave, strong, generous, and scared. Please read or listen their stories. Get to know them. Reach out.

People and their stories:
* Living with Aids.
*Positve lives
* The Aids Debate -BBC
* Teens living with Aids
* "Inspiring Stories"
* But think first
* World AIDS Day: The Last Sucker

Other links:
*International Community of Women
* Aids.org
*Aids online

Previous entries containing links and stories.
Dec 2002. Dec 2001

If you have any more links, comments are stories please feel free to leave them in the comment box.