Futures made of virtual insanity......

 Every night in Harper-ville. Poor dog.

This year has caused a paradigm shift in my life. I have become addicted to something. Something I thought would never happen. Addiction happens only to the weak I thought. People who are enabled, and have no self control, but then it crept in. Slowly, day by day it chipped away at my soul, weakening me. Then one day I realised, I am one of those. The addicted. I game therefore I am.

 Hi tech!

You know, it wasn't like I had never gamed before, it's always been part of my life. Jake grew up with me playing Sonic while he was on my lap. I have amazing fond memories of playing Wizard, Jumpman and Ghostbusters on my Dad's Commodore 64. Hours, wasted (me too sometimes!) grinding those archaic levels. But I had always been able to walk away and go to something else.

 Contents may not appear as on cover. 

I'm skuuuuuured!!!!

I also have an awesome time watching (DIRECTING) Chris play games like Dragon Age, Silent Hill, Eternal Darkness, Final Fantasy 7 and all those beautiful games that aren't 2 player. I liken them to interactive movies, where I get to scream "TURN ON YOUR FUCKING LIGHT!!!!" and have the character (Chris) do what I say for once! These have provided me with thousands of hours for over more than a decades worth of enjoyment. They have made me cry, laugh, shriek, jump, and swell with emotions I hardly knew what to do with. They have affected me as much as any movie I've ever watched. They are a completely different experience and aren't nearly as passive as say, watching TV or movies. I love this way of "gaming".

Completely true. 

!!!

SHUT UP.

But sometime this year something changed. A switch was flicked. I was getting dangerously close to the edge. Dancing on the razor thin line of casual user. Then it happened. We went away for a little holiday. 4 days, 3 nights of Vancouver Island fun. It was great! A vacation that left me actually relaxed. All but for one thing. I MISSED MY PS3 AND XBOX ALMOST AS MUCH AS MY DOGS AND KID. Ok, who am I kidding. IT WAS MORE. I talked to Jake everyday, but I had NO GAMING. Nothing on my Android phone filled that need. OH GOD THE HUMANITY.

 Guiscard is useless. Srsly.

I have suffered for this need. I have endured buggy as shit games (I'm looking at you War In The North), terrible lag, sore thumbs, wrist strain and considerably less knitting (try knitting AND gaming. It's a damned if you do/don't scenario for sure) content. I have skipped social outings, lost sleep and had many game inspired dreams. I have found out that sometimes a 14$ game from the PSN is better than a 60$ game supported by a major studio (ahem WITN AGAIN) and I'll still play them both. Over and over. And over. Frustration, brilliance, actual high fives with my husband and rage quits. All parts of daily life.I wouldn't trade it for anything. Nope. Now if I could just find the time to finish that knitting....

I game therefore I am.

A song for the dumped

It's never a bad time to clean things out.  Start with your closet, You know you'll never fit in those jeans again no matter how much you wish you could. Just go buy some new pants dammit. Those shirts you haven't worn in forever? Donate them. Someone else will love them. Move on to your pantry. Holy shit that yeast for the bread you were gonna make expired in 2010! Oops. Get rid of spices that have had a label change or lost their zip. 2 year old cereal? TOSS THAT FUCKER. Move on to your fridge. Seriously people, just because it's kept cold it can still go off. Check condiment dates. You may end up eating slightly rancid salad dressing if you don't. Anything that is green that ain't celery? BIN IT. A clean fridge is a beautiful thing.

This is spurred on by the need to clean up and clear out that I periodically go through. It extends to Facebook. It's time to prune that too. Anyone you wouldn't want to talk to IRL for less than 5 minutes, clip! If you are keeping peeps around because you like to watch their drama? Dude, your life is better off without it. I have to tell you, that lecture-y tone is the voice of experience here.

I had a friend once, that no one liked. Not my family, not my other friends and not a single guy I dated. I always felt bad about that and glossed over it. Rooted for the under-dog so to say. We had been friends for so long, and were in that weird highschool way very very bad and ever so fun. We had gone through so much shit that I think I felt I owed it to the universe to stick it out. Like blaming the salad greens when you know damn well it's that goddamn dressing you can't bring yourself to toss.

We didn't even always live in the same city this girl and I, but when we did or when we were together it was like knowingly eating a green weenie to see what happened and I was the green weenie eater (PHRASING). I usually ended up sick, hurt and still nowhere near my goal weight. The last time I saw her was when her Dad died and I went back to my hometown for the funeral. We went shopping with her 8-9 year old daughter a couple of days later and I had the proverbial nail in the coffin experience. We went to the bog and while her kid was in the stall she calmly pulled out almost 2k worth of stuff she had stolen and showed it to me. I said nothing (eating greenies again) but after that trip I never saw her again. I think we may have had a phone call or two and we never did break up officially. Never had it out, never finalised the papers, nothing. I just stopped. It felt weird for a long time, but that feeling? It was clean. It was pure and it was the beginning of me taking care of me. Cleaning out the fucking fridge once and for all.

Brown sugar.. why do you taste so good?

Serious Lemon Muffins. SERIOUS.*

2 c flour
1 tsp soda/salt
2 eggs
1/2 c butter
1/2-2/3 c sugar
2-3 tsp lemon flavouring/extract
500 ml plain Greek yogurt
couple squirts lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
you can add some lemon zest if desired. I find it a little bitter.

glaze
lemon juice/sugar in equal amounts

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon, flavour, yogurt, and juice.
Add dry to wet, don't over mix.

Cook in 325 oven for approx 25 min or until done. Poke tops with fork, spoon a little bit of glaze on top.

I need to refine this a bit. It was lemony, but didn't have the POP of flavour I wanted. I think next time I will up the lemon juice in the batter. Also I will do a cooked glaze. Maybe a blend of icing sugar and lemon juice (and get fresh this time dammit!) cooked on the stove until blended and spooned over the muffins. That sounds better. I do love me a good muffin. Chris LOVES these with some raspberry jam spread on them.


In other non muffin related news.. well there isn't much actually. My knitting has slowed to a crawl as I am still mesmerized by video games which eats into my knitting time considerably. I still try to knit during my HORROR MOVIE DE JOUR PROJECT but sometimes I just have to snuggle dogs instead.

How could you not want to snorgle these faces?? They are being bed-sharks on the snuggle pit (our bed) and OMG SO CUTE I CAN'T BREATHE!! Wow. That just blorked out!

Ooh look! More hail! What a surprise. Or you know, not. July in Calgary (especially during the Stampede) is wacky weather time. I kinda like it. Even if this hail storm did cause my video game horse to get eaten by wargs or some such bullshit and made me swear off paying for mounts ever again and watching hail while playing a video game that can't be paused (Sacred 2 Epic Fail) and write giant run on sentences. I'm unsure if that made sense. But this is stream of consciousness here, go with it.

Lily was entranced by the hail. She loves the screen door (or as we call it, DTV=dog TV) and watches it all the time. Her and Pickles are amazingly hilarious together. I'll try to get some video of them soon.

Good thing our car already got paid out from the hail last year. Poor dimpled Jack.



*there is no brown sugar in this recipe.

Pictures of Lily...

Miss Leliana Wiggles Skywalker. Big name for a little wiggler. She came to live with us a week ago. She's a Bichon Shih Tzu, or as my Brother said, a Shitson (but only once. And it was totally my fault. I forgot to let them out) and she is 2. She has had a litter of pups, but is fixed now. She is very sweet and quiet (but when she does bark LOOK OUT! She has a DEEP VOICE!) and has assimilated right in. Her and Pickles are quite the good friends. They play together a few times a day and it warms up even my mouldy ol' black heart.

And the knitting! THE KNITTING!! I have been knitting up a storm, but have slowed to a crawl especially since it got hot and we have a few video games I CAN'T STOP PLAYING. Fly that nerd flag Karen!

See? I do not kid. the knitting has been awesome. It's hot here now. But I have a new screen door with an enormous screen, the breezes she let's in! It's lovely.

I only eat candy.....

Chris has a theory that I have been avoiding my blog because of the pictures of Max. Maybe he is right... so here's a post to push that off the map.

To tell the truth I have been avoiding all my blogs as I am having a lazy/not feeling funny/too little hours in the day even for me who doesn't do anything few weeks. I will now force the issue. You know it's getting bad when I'm not even taking pictures of my knitting. And I have done a TON of knitting. I've finished at least 4 or 5 shawls since I've shown any off. huh.

Pickles is being very very strange since Max died. He is very NEEDY. At least I think he's stopped looking for Max. I think. But he seems kinda scared to go outside by himself. This is a picture of him I just took hiding under my chair. We are actively looking for a puppy for a companion for him. But it's harder than you'd think, finding a dog. I miss Max more than I thought I would. More than I thought was possible. The unending rain didn't help.

This has been a sad week. Chris' Auntie died. She was very sick and in pain, and far too young. I wish I could have gotten to know her better than I did. She seemed clever, funny and very caring. I'm so sad for my MIL. This has been a rough time for her. Big loves to you Moms.

But it's time to push the maudlin bullshit, poor me stuff away now. The sun is finally out! I'll take pictures of my knitting and go run around the back yard with Pickles (doing the dog turd obstacle course) and feel better. Cause I have always got my gummi bears.

You move, lost and lonely..

Good Bye Maximilian J Scrufflesworth 3rd.com. You were the best a dog could be. I'll miss you always and forever. 

Max

1996-2011

Black Sheep, Come Home...

I'd like to welcome the newest additions to my desk, tiny cow and tiny deer. They are living on what Safeway calls (so aptly I must say) Green Balls. Seriously, that is what they were labeled as in the floral dept. I actually think they are some kind of moss or something as I've had it for 2 weeks and it shows no signs of dying yet. I have them cut very short and put into a wee glass bowl with tiny cow and deer grazing merrily on top. Wonder how long my black thumb will keep them going? Me too.

Knitting content!

Malabrigo lace and my first project with nupps. SUPER FUN. This is a pattern called Mimosa and I enjoyed it so much that I made another one. Right after. Cause I'm not weird or anything.

Same project, different yarn. Reclaimed cashmere I bought form Etsy. Lovely.

Punta space dyed merino lace yarn. I used a chart to knit this. That is amazing for me. AMAZING. I am usually terribly chart phobic. Go me!

More Malabrigo lace. Another Traveling Woman shawl. I sent the honeysuckle one to to my MIL so knit one for me to keep.

Knitpicks Chroma fingering weight. Nice enough yarn but it had 3 KNOTS IN IT! That were tied to different colours. An enormous pain in my arse and really put me off it. I have a shit ton more of it and don't really want to use it. :/

More Malabrigo, more nupps. I think I may have a problem here.....

War! What is it good for??

In my house we have an ongoing war. Well a couple of them actually.. but I think I might be the only one fighting them. Unless my husband and son are NINJAS? I just thought of that. Or maybe covert agents. Anyways, I'm unsure how it works in other peoples' houses, but in mine, I am the only one who changes the toothpaste and puts the toilet paper on the holder. I can squeeze out the last minuscule drop of toothpaste and my husband will manage to get out a drip or drab and leave the tube there. Empty, broken, mocking me with it's flat-ness. Then I break down and get a fresh tube out. Maybe it's the re-cycling aspect. Both the box that the toothpaste comes in AND the loo roll need to get taken to the recycling bin in the back, So maybe that's why both of those particular things gets left to me? I'm not sure. But when I brought it up to Chris yesterday (well played sir, well played) he feigned ignorance of the whole thing. Yeah right.. let it rage.

I found this picture in a file. Chris must have taken it with his phone, I love that cartoon setting! It shows the mimping that Pickles does so well. He spent an hour on my lap as I surfed this am. Such a crybaby.

Til I am myself again...

Can you believe Jake is 19? Me either. I think of how long ago that is and it seems like no time has passed at all. I wish my Mom could see how awesome he is becoming. He is a very kind caring boy and I reckon that is in no small part to having such a super support system when he was small. He had love from all sides, and the great fortune to know his grandparents. He still has a special bond with my Dad. Oh time.. slow down a little for a while wouldja?

It was also Pickles birthday. He and Jake are birthday twins you know. He celebrated by trying to sleep on the bed with us. Um, sorry buddy, no go. Maybe one day when we have a king size bed.. of course having said that I have to fess up. He totally sleeps on the bed when Chris gets up for work and uh, well, all night long when Chris is gone away. Like now. Chris is in Oklahoma City and Pickles couldn't be happier. All bed, all night. Even little Max gets in on it in the mornings. How I love my dogs. Spoiled little gits.

I had a couple of girlfriends try to talk me into trying out the netflix. Since my computer had to go BACK TO THE SHOP AGAIN* and I am movie impaired I decided to give it a go. I mean come on, it's free for a month right? OMG I WAS WRONG. I may be a convert. At least until I exhaust their shitty horror selections. They have a lot of really good stuff, I was super surprised. For 8 bucks a month I reckon that this is a big ol' winner.

Blargh I am suffering from a general malaise today. Time to try to motivate. Or turn on the netflix and eat those strawberries in the fridge... hmmm....


Hey my nephew Mark had some rather big surgery yesterday, send him some good healing thoughts. Love you dude, feel better soon.











*fer fucks sake. they absolutely did not fix it. my wiggins resulted in prepaid shipping and actually getting to talk to someone in the US. we'll see if it's fixed this time. dicks.