Birth of a Bunny

On New Year's Day this year, I became a great aunt for the third time. The first two are girls... this one a boy. One of my older nieces (not a great niece... just a regular niece... although she's a great young woman!) coined a term for great aunt that shortened things up a bit. She did the same thing with great uncle too. She's silly that way!

So I am three times a "Grauntie". Great + aunt = grauntie. (In my family aunt rhymes with ant, not taunt. Just so you know.)

So as a gift for the birth of this wee little man, I took it upon myself to make something for him. I was finding time dragging a bit (mild understatement) after the demise of my relationship with the MoS, so I decided to try my hand at paper mache.

And not just any old paper mache, but the type that uses paper mache clay as found here. I've never actually made anything out of any kind of paper mache before, so this was a venture into uncharted territory.

I've put together a little slide show of the procedure, complete with Lila checking it out midway through construction. I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out! It's about 14" tall and solid as a rock. I sprayed a few coats of water-based varathane on it when it was all painted up for protection.

So? What do you think?

PS - LX? And Sausage Fingers? I can't comment on your blogs because of the embedded comments thing. I don't know why. It doesn't matter if I use the old or the new blogger interface. I've tried both. *sigh* Just so you know...

The Gift of Life

It's been a while... too long, in fact. But over the past few years, this has slipped by the wayside and it's time to make it a regular part of things again.

I'm talking about donating blood.

It used to be easier to do, before I got into nursing. The hospital actually has blood donor clinics on occasion, but it's very difficult to take the time away from my unit to donate. So now, I have updated my info online with Canadian Blood Services and scheduled an appointment for Friday morning at their headquarters near the biggest hospital in town.

And having had a number of surgeries over the past decade, each one has required a wait of 6 months past each surgery before being eligible again. And those delays just make it slip my mind.

You can do all that online now, which is a huge bonus, because I can look at my work schedule and make an appointment for a day off. No longer a hit and miss thing, as in 'will I remember there's a donor clinic on such and such a date at such and such a location?" (The answer to that tends to be no these days.)

It would appear I am too old (!) for their stem cell donor program (max. age is 50 per the website) but whole blood, platelets and plasma are still on the list. Whole blood can be donated every 56 days, platelets every 14 days and plasma twice in 7 days to a max of 26 time in a year. I've only ever donated whole blood but am going to look into the plasma and platelets situation and see if I am better suited to one of those.

As a nurse, I have given many blood transfusions to patients, whole blood (more often than not), as well as plasma or platelets. I am very aware of the need for blood donors to roll up their sleeves. Did you know that there is almost always a shortage of blood? And that different surgeries require different amounts of blood (on average)? And that accident victims sometimes get many times their original amount of blood in the form of transfusions?

Considering the average human body contains about 5 liters of blood, if you look at that chart, you'll see that the need for blood is huge. A liver transplant may involve 100 units of blood. A unit is, on average, between 350 and 450 ml of blood. A measuring cup is 250 ml. And that 250 ml is 1/4 of a liter.

That's a lot of the red stuff. The stuff of life. Because without it, you're just dust in the wind. If you are able, please donate.

Ah... Sweet Valentine

Wishing each of you, and your sweethearts, lots of love this Valentine's Day. Never mind the flowers and chocolates, fancy dinners and jewelry... spend time with your dear one and tell them how you truly feel. Never be afraid to love and be loved, for love can open all manner of possibilities to you and bring wondrous joy into your lives. ♥ 

Haiku Monday - Mother Nature

The view from my apartment, overlooking the field and fire hall. When we should be in the midst of a brutal deep freeze, with temperatures normally around -30C, it has been so unseasonably warm (other than a few minor glitches of cold) that the lack of snow, and even melting in mid-February, has most of us wondering when a big blizzard is going to hit. Mother Nature has a seriously warped sense of humour...

(It is only -2C outside right now... on February 13th!!)

Weird winter weather.

Global warming's given us

Balmy temps, no snow!

Discover 100% delighted

"It is possible to unlock iPhone 4 discover 100 % delighted by the skills delivered by your entire iPhone carrier. To include now this apart, you'll don’t require being technician experience."

I think not...

The spammers have caught up with me and their comments, if you can call them that, are getting closer to current posts.

So, unfortunately, I have to institute word verification again. I hope this doesn't cause any problems... Mago? You will let me know if it does?

Can't they bloody well leave my blog alone?

My Haiku Monday entry

Cutters slice crisp crusts

Jingle jangles on broad backs

Sleigh rides in the snow

This week's Haiku Monday is being hosted by none other than Serendipity and her theme is "metallic sounds." Head over to her blog to check out the other competitors. This, by the way, is only the second haiku I have ever written, so I'm definitely a newbie!

Progression

I got up this morning at about 8:00 a.m. and the sun was shining. Which I thought was a lovely change from yesterday!

In about 15 minutes, it looked like this: 

About an hour later, it looked like this: 

Let another hour pass, and this is what we've got:

Hopefully, that's it for the fog. I've had enough!!!

Pea soup, anyone?

We've been sitting smack dab in the middle of a warm (for us) moist air mass for the past three days.

This means winter fog.

Today is the worst by far. I took the photo below out my fourth floor window at 4:30 p.m. You'd think we were in the middle of a blizzard! But if you look at the bottom left side of the shot you can see some exposed black dirt. We don't have much snow here. It's been a very warm (but I'm not complaining! beats -30 any day!) and dry winter so far. (The farmers will be very unhappy come spring... not enough soil moisture unless we get adequate [and not too much] rain early in the planting season.)

There is a very vague slightly darker grey smudge across the centre of the photo... that is the new fire hall that was just built. It is probably 300 yards from my place. And now, 20 minutes later, I can't see it at all!


And I am supposed to drive to my nephew's house in an hour... I think I will be white knuckling it!

RIP Charlie Callahan

High above, the Star

Beams brightly down upon us

Big sigh for Charlie