Hello - not the magazine

I know, it seems like forever since I've been here.  In fact it's only been two and a half months (not to be confused with Two and a Half Men - which reminds me, is Charlie Sheen the half man in that particular combination?).  Anyway, it's good to be back, though I really should be writing two very long and very different papers and packing to move, along with cleaning out the fridge (no not as in eat everything in it - as tempting as that might be), and generally sorting myself out.  "You're moving again?!" I hear you exclaim in horror tinged with awe.  Yes, but this time it's only across the city, not changing countries - yet.  The landlady is waffling - not to confuse her with a waffle, though that might create some very interesting imagery. One minute she's moving into the city and thus into this apartment, the next she's selling it, or maybe it's her son that's buying it - selling it - moving in to it.  She's changed her mind more times than most kids change socks.  So instead of taking a chance that I'll still have a place to live when I get back, we (our Human Resources lady and I) went apartment hunting.
As a result, I will be moving this month into a three story townhouse.  Three times the room, three times the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and, of course, three times the cleaning.  For someone who is not a keen housekeeper this will definitely be a challenge, but one I'm sure I can handle (and if I tell myself that often enough and loud enough, I just might believe it).
No guarantees I'll be back here in a hurry, but I will try.  Until next time - whenever that may be.

Don't Eat the Book Please

It's been a long time, but life got in the way.  Shouldn't let it, I know, but there it is.  So why not eat the book?  Charlie the cat believes the best way to get the most out of a book is to eat it.  Not exactly healthy for the book in question, and he's not necessarily choosy in what kind of book it is, though he does tend to prefer non-fiction to fiction.
I have no idea why he thinks eating a book is the best way to absorb the contents, but metaphorically I can see where he is going with this.  I, too, consume books, though not his way.  I have no problem sitting down and in a day reading a book cover to cover, consuming its contents the same way I'd consume a bowl of popcorn or a bag of chips.  If it's fiction and a short book it will take less than a day to read.  Longer books, if they are truly engage me can take up to two or three days, depending on how thick they are and how easy it is to read them.  Non-fiction can take up to a week, depending on the topic and why I'm reading it.  Academic books can take two or more weeks because it takes me a long to to absorb and digest the contents (again with the eating metaphor).  Which may be why Charlie avoids eating this particular type of book - too dry to enjoy, not enough flavour. 
The question then is, how do others read?  Do they also consume books or do they slowly sample and savour?  What about "have to" reading, like textbooks or writing that is imposed on a person because of a course or school requirement?  Do these readers simply pick away at said book, much like picking at a vegetable they really don't like to eat?  How does one enjoy that kind of reading?  I read such books because they are a course requirement, but because they are directly connected to what I am learning, I will choke down academese in order to digest the nuggets (not to be confused with McDonald's nuggets, which may be equally hard to digest but are at least not dry) of information.  In the mean time, I'll try to keep Charlie from eating his way through all my books while I try to read them.  Until next time, I need to choke down a little more academese.

Singed

No.  Not sing-ed, singed as in burnt slightly.  Why you ask?  I have no idea, but for the last couple of days I've been doing a grandma thing - except I'm not a grandma.  What am I talking about, you ask.  It's really quite simple.  So simple in fact that it's quite painful.  My grandmother had this bad habit of burning herself on either the iron or the stove.  I'm not sure how many times she'd end up wit singed fingers or a burn mark on her hand or arm.  It wasn't that she was ordinarily clumbsy, but somehow it always happened.  So why am I comparing myself to her?  Well for some reason, I've burnt the same hand three times in as many days.  the first was on my middle finger with the iron, above the knuckle.  That's what happens when a hand that's moving clothing around to be pressed.  Then that same day I was removing a cake from the oven.  Now I know - cake is not a good thing to have in the first place, but I have an excuse.  It was chocolate and I'd made it from scratch.  However.  I was using oven mits, but took one off to reach for something and at the same time accidentally touched the very hot rack.  Burnt my index finger.  Then yesterday I had been using some tongs to remove stuff from a pot and accidentally touched the very hot end.  Burnt the knuckle of my middle finger - same hand.  I think from now on I'll just avoid using anything that might get hot.  Guess that means cold cereal for meals and wrinkled clothes, but at least I won't have any more burns - for a while - I hope.  Until next time when I won't be burning anything.

Courier

I like to think I get around on this planet.  In fact I'm pretty sure I've got the whole travel thing down, but nothing tops how things travel when a person sends something internationally by courier.  Tracking a package as it makes its way from one side of the planet to another is an itinerary that would exhaust even the most experienced international traveller.  Take for instance anything I shipped from India(when I lived there) to Canada.  First it travels locally to the nearest large centre for clearance.  Then it flies to Europe to some other large place and is cleared.  From there it goes to a smaller centre for additional clearance before it's flown to a large city in the U.S.  From that large city it goes to a smaller city in a different state, then to a large city in Canada, over to a small centre in a small city, and finally on to its final destination.  It's not much different when something is shipped from Canada.  An example, if you wish.  I've finally decided to go for it and begin taking classes online for my Masters of Arts.  There are textbooks and reading packages involved which are being couriered to me in Colombia from Edmonton.  First the shipment was collected and processed in Edmonton, when it was then flown to Calgary.  That kind of makes sense.  From there it went to Cincinnati, Miami and some obscure place I've never heard of.  It is now, at this writing in Panama.  From there who knows where it will go before it ends up in Colombia and finally in my hot little hands.  And I thought going home was complicated.  I know I won't be complaining about visiting airports any time soon given how much travelling this package will have done.  Speaking of travelling, though, while I'm here.  I recently went to Belize for a short holiday.  Four airports later I finally arrived at my destination.  Seems no one here knows where Belize is, but then few people in Belize know where this is either, so guess we're even.  Until next time I'm travelling (not to be confused with time travel which would probably be much faster and no airports to hang out in), I guess I'll move myself to do something worthwhile.

Woo Hoo

It just dawned on me!  Yeah I know slow - but I do get there.  I have been posting for a year.  This is this blog's first birthday!!  Woo Hoo and who knew I'd be able to do this for so long without too many huge gaps.

Think I'll bake a cake in honour of this special occation.  Mmmmm - maybe not on second thought.  There's only me and the cat and he doesn't eat cake.  Ah well.  A nap will do just as well.  Until next time.

Issues

Life has a really bad habit of getting in the way of things.  It's all those - you know - intentions and pesky resolutions we make to ourselves every year.  We intend to keep up our correspondence with aunt Fluffy and resolve to post on our blogs faithfully, but somehow aunt Fluffy and blogging get lost in other things.  Those THINGS that we all do but could probably not.  Take, for example, this blog.  I had intended to post more regularly and had resolved to make sure I did so.  However, as we all know - that didn't happen.  Do I have a reason?  No.  Not really.  I can make up lots of excuses again, some more, additionally - hmm where did I put that Thesaurus?  Never mind.  What I did do when I had the time was practice the find art of doing nothing once the rush for marking, exams and end of semester stuff was done.  I could have jumped straight on to the computer and blithered on for ages about nothing, but somehow, NOTHING was calling me - literally and figuratively speaking.  Now I could solve this dilemma by resolving to promise to intend to be here regularly, but there is no guarantee I'll do so, and have been shown the errors of my ways today because I couldn't remember which email address I used or which password I had for my blogspot. So, since my memory is very good, if very short, I wrote all of it down.  I suspect I'll have to write down a blogging date in my day timer - if I can remember where I put it ... Until next time, I think I'll have a nap.  All this thinking has worn me out.