Friday, the 2nd was my first day back at work and I feel like I never left. On a positive note, I had to wonder how I survived without the place for the last 13 months. Work is good, it's not always perfect, but I missed it. The week consisted of some office work and two days of recerting my rules card. Now, I'm back training in Northern Ontario nights where I belong. My first night shift was fine, I never hit “the wall” which confirms the fact that I am a night person. Some people will do anything to hold days but I'd much rather smash all the knuckles on my hand with a hammer. I'll be weeks away from retirement and still working nights.

If you would have told me that I was going to miss my job this much four years ago I would have told you to lay off the crack. I'm back to riding my bike and it's my plan to ride as long as the weather doesn't drop below -30. I'll probably combine riding with the C-Train in the winter but that has to do with how dark some of my route is more than the weather.

... if the Canadiens make it to the playoffs I'm going to stop shaving and waxing, force ES to grow a beard and draw facial hair on Junior in the hopes that what just happened in Philly doesn't happen again.

So ski season and hockey season have ended on the same day for me this year.

Bugger.

The best thing about discovering a new hobby in cooking is also discovering that there are now several hundred gadgets I can't live without.

At the top of list is the Kitchen Aid Artesian mixer. Of course the damn thing comes in 14 colours so now I have to make a decision before I even think of buying one.

Look to the right of my blog to give me a hand in this decision.

What's better than finding a $20 bill in the pocket of a jacket you haven't worn since the fall?

Realizing that when you put your sports car away for the winter you did so after filling up the tank. Woohoo, it's convertible season!

The Simpson's is 20 years old. Nothing like waking up one day and realizing that you're middle aged.

I dread the day that Simon comes home dressed like Kurt Cobain because 90's grunge is retro.

I love marketing. I find the tricks of the trade fascinating and I'm always watching or reading ads to see what exactly the ad is trying to elicit from the watcher or reader.

For instance, Duracell (batteries) runs several commercials talking about how they are chosen for various emergency services, hospitals and NASA projects. What you need to know about that is that publicly funded agencies usually have to find the lowest bidder for everything. My guess is that Duracell deliberately bids low for these public services guaranteeing that theirs will be the battery used say in fire-fighter “man-down” alarms. It costs them initially because of their low bid but gives them great advertising potential. In my opinion, it's brilliant.

When I got out of the shower this morning (sorry about that mental image) I heard thumping. I assumed cat shenanigans and continued to dry off but then I noticed that the thumping seemed to be coming from the roof.

Some people are drawn to what could be; some to the optimism of a better future and some to an advanced technology not yet seen. Then there are the people like me; the history people who are much more comfortable dressed in a different time. The classic example of this is the SCA but as much as I like a good Elizabethan dress I'm much more comfortable in a May West and battered forage cap.

But aside from re-enacting the past, I also spend a lot of time recording my own personal history. I've mentioned in posts before that I have a journalling fetish. I think that the journalling all ties in to my love of history.

I've been uploading some photos from the summer. There should be a few more every day:

http://www.duxfordgirl.ca/inmemoriam/browse.php?id=11

There are two things I shouldn't be doing on June 9th:

1) Covering up my bedding-out plants every evening.

2) Watching the Stanley Cup Final.

I think that the late hockey season is angering the weather gods. At any rate, if this weather keeps up, I'm running away to warmer climates at xmas.