Dining with the ancestors, and other musings. Blessed Samhain to all! And what will you be serving your ancestors tonight? I’m having pork chops, turnips, potatoes and corn muffins, and beer of course! I still have to carve my pumpkin, but I’ve got a couple of hours yet til dark…good grief, I need to change that clock it keeps messing with my head!

Doncha hate that? Yesterday morning I showed up at work an hour early because we forgot to change the clocks back :-p So I had nothing to do but go shopping :-o Yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary, so I got James’ gift and some new boots for myself. They’re really cool boots, brown suede and VERY comfy! I can even wear them with my Ren costume if its cold when we go on the 13th. Its rather dangerous to my bank balance, working at a studio stuck in the back of a K-Mart ya know!

This morning I had to go to the bank and make a couple of deposits. James and I both get paid on the same day, and he rarely has time to get to the bank himself, and making deposits in the machines is very slow to update our balance! Banking in the US is years behind Canada, its rather annoying really. Anyhow, I digress….I was standing in line for the teller, and for lack of anything else to do, I was watching their security monitor. It flashes from each camera for a second or two, and they have about a dozen cameras. Then I noticed something rather amusing. Someone had put a smiley face sticker on the lense of one the outdoor cameras, facing the drive-thru! That was funny I tell ya! *snarf*

I got my Watkins Vanilla Classic Recipes book the other day, and just finished making the granola bars. I exchanged almonds and soy beans for the fruit and raisins tho, I’ll let you know how they turn out when they cool off and I can try them.

I think I will get dressed up tonight after I eat my dinner and take some over to James at work. I think the sheer black blouse, with the Chinese red corset and long black skirt. If I can get the corset done up without assistance. If I manage it, I’ll take my new digital cam with me and have James take a pic. Any other time, Halloween should be come as you aren’t, but since I moved here, its about the only day I can be myself! ;-)

Speaking of my new digital camera, I got it last week for a steal! I have the Staples Business Rewards card, and it gives you points for all purchases. Staples rewards work a little different than other rewards programs in that you periodically receive a Staples check/cheque good as cash for any purchase in the store. So a couple of weeks ago I got a $12 rewards check, then there was a $20 coupon for digital cameras in the newspaper, and then the HP 5.2 mp camera went on sale for $149. I managed to get the camera, a FREE 128mb memory card, a bottle of white out and 5 photocopies all for less than the SALE price of the camera! Cool eh? It really does pay to have those rewards memberships. I needed a new camera, my other one crapped out at the beginning of the month, and I would have paid the $149 for it gladly, but happily I paid even less! J

I started training on the camera at work this week. I took a couple of sittings, and did fairly well. That was on Thursday or Friday I think, Saturday and Sunday were just too freakin busy for me to train any more. Saturday was absolutely insane! We did 19 sits, luckily 6 of them either re-scheduled or didn’t show up, because we would have been there til about 10:00 I’m sure of it! Our appointments after lunch all showed up late, and really messed up our evening. And of course, half of them were large groups, which is not necessarily difficult to photograph, but difficult to figure out how many of each photo to order for whom! But we survived and made it thru. Next week, starting the 7th, we’ll be open 6 days a week, so I’ll have lots of overtime, which will be nice for the pay check, but I’ll be totally exhausted! Thankfully its only til Christmas Eve, then we’ll be back to 5 days a week.

I may try to get brave and go get a haircut tomorrow. I’m still debating that one. Its very expensive to fly home to Toronto every time I get annoyed with my hair, so I’ll have to suck it up and be brave I guess. I just get really nervous thinking I’ll end up with poofy Big American Hair er summat…GAH!

I’m hungry, I should have tea and then a bath. I think I will have to carve the pumpkin while I have my tea…where did the day go?

Happy Halloween!  ¶ 3:36 PM 3 Comments

  On my day off Working with the public is hazardous to your health!

I have a head cold. My nose is stuffed up, I can’t breathe or taste anything, and my head feels like its full of wool. Maybe a whole sheep even.

I think I must have got this at work. All day long we have people coming in some of whom bring their sick children in to have their pictures done. The other day, a family came in who’d just had their flu shots that day. And then the baby started coughing and sneezing all over me. Now I’ve got it :-p At least I have a couple days off to try and get rid of it, but I don’t think yesterday and today will be enough. *sniffle*

Today James was supposed to have the day off as well, and we were on our way to Hickory to take the dogs to PetSmart and then he got a phone call that they guy who was supposed to be running the shop today had called in saying his kids were sick and he had to stay home with them. This guy has the sickest kids on the planet apparently. More likely he went out drinking again last night and is too hungover to work, he’s been doing that a lot lately James says. So we had to turn the car around, and come home so James could go to work. The dogs are not happy in the least. Get them all dressed up and then just bring them home. Hmph.

And its not even noon yet

Figures that my allergies finally faded away to recent memory, and then I get a freakin’ head cold so I still can’t breathe. Ugh. Is there anything on TV? Maybe I should just go to the drug store and get some NyQuil and overdose on that for the day. Or maybe I could just sit here and eat ice cream. My ear is itchy. Not a good sign.  ¶ 10:58 AM 0 Comments

  Catching Up With this new job, I don’t have a whole lot of time for surfing or posting, so I’ll probably only be updating my blog once a week from now on. So here is today’s update.

Remember a couple of weeks ago, I posted about our friend who was visiting from Australia? And then we had 3 days of rain? Well, here are a few pics of that week. I just got the film developed the other day, and had them put on CD so I could load them up to my photobucket. My digi cam wasn’t working for some reason, I think I need to go buy a new one. Staples has them on sale this week and I’ve got $32 worth of coupons I could use ;-)

Anyway, here’s James and our friend Allen with the dogs on the Greenway park here in town. I can no longer walk the dogs myself, I need someone to come with me, so they don’t get out much. It’ll be even less now that we’re both working, and can’t always coordinate our days off. Starting the first week of November, I’ll be working 12 hour days 6 days a week until Christmas :-p



Here’s a picture of me that James took. We were up Grandfather Mountain, just a few feet more than a mile high, and I was right at the edge of it, with nothing under me but sky. Its really nice up there, and we had a lovely sunny day. It’s a privately owned mountain believe it or not, and they have a wild animal refuge, with bears, cougars, bald eagles, golden eagles and deer. All of the animals they have, save a couple of newly born cubs, were injured and left to die by inconsiderate hunters. They were brought to Grandfather Mountain to be cared for and spend the rest of their lives there, in a natural but enclosed habitat. The cubs were born to one of the injured bears, and will be released to the wild when they’re old enough to care for themselves. The cubs are kept separate from the public, so that they don’t get used to humans and become nuisance animals when released.



And remember the 3 days of rain? Here’s my mucky puppies, who I had to keep closed up in the kitchen until they dried off, because my entire house was getting filthy with mud!



And, just because they’re so dang cute, here’s one of each of them sleeping on the couch. Same couch in both pics, just with different covers on different days. I had to change it because of all the mud :-p

Here’s George


and this is Bruno. He has figured out how furniture works now, and makes himself quite comfortable wherever he pleases. At 160 pounds, I’m not about to argue with him ;-)



That’s all for now!  ¶ 11:00 AM 1 Comments

  My new job I started my new job on Wednesday last week, and by Thursday afternoon, I was about ready to walk out and forget about every finding a decent work place around here! The woman they had training me is apparently one of their best sales reps, but she really is not a trainer. Rather than find some documentation for me, or write out approved scripts (every sales organization has scripts!) she just jumps right in with the “let’s role play” crap, and “Rebecca, you be the sales person, I’ll be the customer, sell me some pictures”. So as soon as I open my mouth, she starts flailing and saying “no no no, you can’t say THAT! Here, write this down, write this down, honey, where’s your pen and paper? You have to write this down”. That was pretty much it, for all of Wednesday and the greater part of Tuesday morning. Then I lost it. I started to ask her isn’t there anything about the company I should know? How can I sell the company product, if I don’t know anything about the company? Why the heck am I selling possibly $200 worth of photographs if these people could just go down the road to Wall Mart and pay only $14.95? Then she said “in the year that I’ve been working here, no one has ever asked me that.” I looked straight at her and reminded her that a customer had asked her that just the day before! You’d think that as a sales person, she would understand these questions, but nooooooooOOOOOOooooo. She looked at me like I’m from Mars. I said its difficult to sell a product that I don’t’ believe in, and at the moment, because I know nothing about it, I don’t believe in this product. She looked at me and said “oh, you’re one of those” ugh…one of what? Sheesh!

Luckily tho, on Wednesday she had taken me over to the studio where I’d actually be working, and she introduced m to the photographer there. Jane is a really nice lady, easy to get along with, and I think pretty much on the same wavelength I’m at. If I hadn’t met her, I certainly would have quit, because the lady who was training me was not a very good first impression of the company! And the photographer in the studio where I was being trained was making me dizzy. She never sits down, she’s always flittering everywhere, and she talks about a zillion miles a minute, I couldn’t understand a single thing she said.

But then, despite how desperate I was feeling, I got out of bed on Thursday morning and drove to the studio where I was now supposed to start selling stuff on my own, with only 2 days of very bad training. I tell ya, I learned more in one day from the “non sales person” photographer than I learned from the other one in 2 days! I told her of the incredibly bad experience and she agreed that someone needs to tell the district manager that she should not be a trainer.

I think I will enjoy this job working with Jane in her studio. Jane is a young grandmother, with 3 grown daughters (all younger than me), and 2 grandchildren. During our down times in the studio, we have had a couple of nice chats and I think we’ll get along great. My first day I don’t think I sold anything, except maybe one extra print, but yesterday (Sunday) I sold to every single person who sat down. Not a whole lot, but it brought my average up considerably, and I’m starting to feel more comfortable with what I’m doing. The only thing I don’t like about it is that we’re in a K-Mart, and every 10 minutes they play that stupid “I fell in love in a K-Mart Store” song all day long, every day. Its driving me nutz!

I’m not sure how long I’ll be working there, but for now, its some money in my pocket and we can get some bills paid off, and the dogs won’t have to worry about being switched to cheap food ;-) Although, they’re none too happy with me for leaving them all day long now. I leave just after 9am, and on Wed, Thurs, and Friday I didn’t get home til well after 9pm. Saturday I was home just after 8, and Sunday it was about 8 when I got home I think.. Long days, and they’re out in the yard getting muddy while we’re at work.

James tho has been able to cut a few of his own hours, and was home before me most of those days, so they’re not outside until 9pm every day. But if he gets this job in New Orleans, it’ll just be me and the dogs here for a short while, maybe a month, while James goes there to decide whether or not he wants to move there and take us with him. The communication however between his owner/franchiser and the owner/franchiser in New Orleans and then to him is not clear exactly what the job is to be. Whether its temporary or a permanent move. And now the franchiser here is about panicked because James has actually said he’d leave here and move to New Orleans!

So all in all, neither one of us is sure what we’re doing. I’ll keep my job until whenever, whether til we move, or until I retire I have no idea. Right now everything stems from the franchiser in New Orleans to actually speak to James and not his boss. James said even if its temporary, its still a whole lot of money, and he’ll go and help them out for a few weeks, then come back here. Which means leaving me and the dogs for a while, but I guess we’ve done that before, and it was just usually me doing the leaving. I guess it’ll all work out in the wash eh?

Speaking of wash, I got home last night and James was already home, he’d done the dishes, did a load of laundry, and put the garbage out. I wish he could have more normal hours more often! I’d been so tired all week, all I could do was come in and flop on the couch.

Well, I have to phone the vet and see if I can get Bruno in for his bi-annual check up and booster shot. Then go grocery shopping, we’re about out of food.  ¶ 10:19 AM 0 Comments

  One Year Ago Today Wow, one year.

I arrived in North Carolina October 11, 2004. One year ago today. Doesn’t seem that long ago. And yet it seems longer.

Since I arrived, we have acquired an extra dog. We only had George back then, now we’ve got Bruno too. George barely weighed 100 pounds now she’s about 130. Add Bruno’s 150+ pounds, and its like we’ve got 10 dogs some days! Especially with the mud after that 3 days of rain last week. I’ll post pics when I get the film developed, my digi cam crapped out :-p

We’re still waiting on my Green Card interview appointment. That will probably be sometime in the summer or fall next year I figure. Charlotte USCIS office is taking about 13 months from time of application to interview. We sent my application in early this year, but then they sent us the dreaded RFE (request for further evidence). They had lost my medical file, and wanted me to go for another exam. Pfffffffffft, no way was I going to pay the $400 or so it would have cost for that, so we had Senator Dole’s office take care of that for us. USCIS found my file after a few calls from them! Luckily my K3 visa and EAD is valid 2 years, so I probably won’t need to pay for an extension, I should have my Green Card before it expires. Hopefully!

I have had no problem at all with the usual things spousal immigrants seem to have problems with after arrival. We had no problem getting me added to James’ bank accounts as joint, no problem getting a driver’s license, or Social Security Number, or car insurance. Quite a lot of other K immigrants I know of had a heckuva time with all that. But then they didn’t seem to have much difficulty with immigration, whereas James and I have been at this crap since August of 2001! We started out with Canadian Immigration, that didn’t work out very well, so then we went with US immigration. Which took twice as long as it should have, because we got screwed around by 2 separate lawyers! Never hire a lawyer to do spousal immigration, there’s no need for it! Cheaper and less headache to just do it yourself, trust me! UGH!

Got my Employment Authorization Document (EAD) with little difficulty, and even managed to find a job. Which I later quit after just 3 months because it sucked. Big time! Now I’ve got another job that I’ll be starting tomorrow, plus my part time Watkins business. Which is going fairly well, I just got home from a rather successful Good Tastings party :-) Plus I have 4 candidates who may sign up as associates.

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving, so we went out for dinner to Olive Garden with Alie and Steve. Another Can/Am couple who live not quite an hour away. We met half way in Hickory. We found them thru the immigration discussion forum I used to post at, which I gave up on a few months ago because the climate there got distasteful. There are a few other North Carolina couples on that message board, but Alie & Steve and Cara & Greg are the only ones I’ve met. Cara is from the same area back home in Canada. Alie is from Manitoba.

OH! James has had a job offer. If he accepts it we’d have to move, and I’d have to quit the job I just got. Which might not be bad really; the pay he’s being offered is for nearly twice what he’s getting now. The only thing holding us back is where the job is. Its in New Orleans! Yep, New Orleans! Hot, humid, swampy, flooded Katrina ruined, debauched New Orleans. I don’t mind the debauchery so much, it’s the humidity and swampy flood I’m not too keen on. But it would be more money, and fewer hours. Decisions decisions…we’re still thinking on that one. There would certainly be more to do there, and maybe more Pagan friendly. It’s a tough one.

Well, I’ve got a chocolate induced headache. Today I made chocolate truffles and cleaned all the bowls myself. Without having had anything else to eat before that! I should know better, but man, were they yummy!

Catch ya later!  ¶ 11:25 PM 7 Comments

  Safe so far We woke up this morning to see the rain had stopped and the sun trying to come out and dry it all up.

Maybe I can wash the kitchen floor today. ;-)  ¶ 9:58 AM 0 Comments

  Flood Watch All those horrible hurricanes the past few months, and we hadn’t had any rain since early August. Now its been raining since Wednesday afternoon, and is not expected to let up until sometime Sunday. Parts of our county (Burke) are flooded, and surrounding counties are also flooded. The flood warning is extended until 1am Saturday morning, but its been extended several times throughout the day already, and could continue I expect if the rain doesn’t let up.

Where our house is, is not likely to flood, we’re too high up. But it is entirely likely that we could end up like last year (before I moved south) with half the town in low lying parts flooded because the Catawba River overflowed. So just in case it knocks out power and water services, I’ve filled a bunch of jugs with water, and first thing in the morning will go out and get some dog food! We’re almost out and if we get flooded, we may not be able to get any for a while. Hopefully the dam and river will hold til morning! There’s plenty of non-perishables for me and James, just not enough dog food. I should have got some today and forgot. Oh well, there’s a few steaks in the freezer, and some fish sticks, so the situation is not completely desperate ;-)

The flood warning extends for nearly the entire western portion of North Carolina (anything west of Charlotte pretty much) and upstate South Carolina. A few rivers and streams have already gone over their banks, and washed out roads and such. I hope it doesn’t get as bad as last fall, it shouldn’t, but ya just never know. Our yard is a quagmire, and every time the dogs have to go out to pee they come in dragging the red mud all over everything. I’ve given up washing the floor behind them. I’ll wait til the rain stops and the mud dries. There’s not much point til then.

Aunt Jane is expected to arrive around noon tomorrow. She’s driving over the mountains from Tennessee. I hope she’s ok, and doesn’t hit any flooded areas. I’m not sure which route she’ll be on, probably I-40, and I’m not sure if the interstates are flooding or not. I’ll have to get up early so I can get out and run errands before she arrives.

Ah well, that’s my excitement for this evening. Hopefully the interstate will hold up and not wash out before I start my new job on Wednesday next week. I also have a Watkins home party on Tuesday evening next week, which will also hopefully not get rained out! She’s got around 15 people planning to come, so I could make a boat load of money! We may need the boat! ;-)

If you don’t hear from me for a few days, we’re washed out, send help!  ¶ 11:37 PM 0 Comments

  Serenity When Joss Whedon’s TV show Firefly was cancelled, he said “I feel a movie coming on”. And boy, he wasn’t kidding!

We went to see Serenity yesterday, and I must say, I was impressed. The TV series didn’t last long, not even one entire season, but the story line was good, and generated a following of loyal Whedon fans. The movie definitely does not disappoint!

If you’re familiar with the TV series, you know the characters already. Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the ship Serenity, is a former soldier turned mercenary against the Alliance. The timeline is 500 years in the future, Earth is so overpopulated that we’ve had to find a whole new universe to inhabit. New planets have been “tera-formed” and settlements are thriving. All except one. I don’t want to give too much away, in case you haven’t seen it yet and are planning to. Just let me tell you that the adventure is intense, the characters true to form, and Whedon at his very best. I hope this is first of many.

There’s blood and gore, and action, and unexpected plot twists, and the usual Joss Whedon quick quips and dialog. All the original actors returned for the movie, Nathan Fillion as Mal, whom you may also remember as the psychotic Reverend Caleb in Buffy the Vampire Slayer final season; Adam Baldwin as Jayne, who also appeared on Angel as Marcus Hamilton; Gena Torres, Zoe, you may remember as Jasmine on Angel as well, and Summer Glau, River, was the Prima Ballerina on an Angel episode. Do you see a pattern here? Joss finds people he likes to work with, and he keeps them working. Even if you have never seen the TV show, the movie is easy to get into, with character introductions and development that is to follow. Joss did a great job with this movie, I think I’ll see it again, and then buy the DVD, and the DVDs of the TV series too!

There are a couple of unexpected sad tear jerking scenes, yes actual tears, but there are also lots of funny laugh out loud scenes. This is a great balance to keep you interested for the just slightly under 2 hour running time. Just don’t get the “bladder buster” size coke and you’ll be fine ;-)

I highly recommend this movie to any Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Joss Whedon fans.  ¶ 12:22 PM 0 Comments

  What is with all the garbage!? Why is it that every time I go grocery shopping, no matter which store, there are buggies all over the parking lot because most people can’t even be bothered to put them away in the corral where they got them? Not only do they not bother to put them in the proper place, but some just leave them there in the middle of the roadway, making the parking lot a very dangerous place! I spend 5 minutes every time I go shopping just straightening out the dang buggies in the corral so that I don’t have to leave mine out in the middle of the roadway. And have I ever gotten a “thank you” from anyone? Noooooo.

Why do people driving down my street insist on tossing their garbage out of the car window and onto my front lawn? This morning I went out to the car to get something and there was a McDonald’s bag and a juice can lying there in my yard. Every day I go out and there’s more garbage. Add that to the freakin’ Yorkie poo from the dogs up the street who use our lawn for a toilet, and it looks like I live in the city dump half the time.

And the people who just dump their garbage over at the recycling centre, rather than sort it into the proper bins, just drop bags full on the pavement and go. This is just down right rude! Its nice that you’re recycling, but you’re not done until its in the correct bins!

Why are people so goddamn lazy? Do they care so little about their home town, and have so little respect and courtesy for their fellow man, that it doesn’t matter what THEY do, just as long as nobody tosses garbage on THEIR front lawn, and grocery buggies don’t get in THEIR way?

Put your own grocery buggy away, toss your garbage in your own garbage can at home, sort your recycling, and have a little respect for the planet! Do you honestly think that if no one sees you littering, or leaving your buggy in the middle of the road, or dumping your garbage at the recycling centre, and that no one cares? “Someone” will pick it up, put it away or sort it for you? This is a sad sad world we live in if 90% of the population just doesn’t give a damn, and the rest of us 5% have to try and keep up with the mess.

/rant  ¶ 4:17 PM 3 Comments