pb and j sandwich, Sherry?

My cat is licking up a glob of peanut butter from the plate that held my toast snack. Interesting. I did not know of this peanut butter interest.

those kooky critters

Gol darnit! Every year I have successfully headed off the annual attempt by the ants to infiltrate my apartment. I'd read that the first ants are scouts, so I mercilessly kill the first dudes I see each year.

But this year... the scouts got passed me. And while I was away at Swissgirl's, they discovered the Sweetener Cupboard! The cupboard where we keep the sugar pot, the agave, and the molasses. I've been meaning to clean the bottom of that one shelf for awhile, because the agave bottle always burps out a little syrup when you close the lid, so the shelf is sticky.

I believe these are black carpenter ants. The good news: They do a lot of their work at night, which is when we're awake... so I can keeell them (or make Fernando keell them. I can keell with shoes and books, but don't care for the hand-t0-hand combat approach.)

Bad news: They're omniverous.

- grains: nooooo!
- fruits: I'd better stick the raisins and craisins in the fridge
- living or dead insects, other small invertebrates: Oh yes, got other insects around this place. (Don't click on the next links unless you like bug pics.) Silverfish and carpet bugs. (Ew and they eat their own dead kind too!)
- common sweets such as syrup, honey, jelly, sugar : Doh! All in my fridge now.
- and most kinds of meat, grease, and fat: Soft cat food remnants! Curses! And gotta make sure the olive and canola oils are safe.

* Apparently they eat the food on the spot, then regurgitate it into little baby ant mouths.

* Man... soon it will be fruit fly season too! Well, at least I've never heard tell of cockroach problems here.

* Writing about ants gives me "formification" (the sensation of bugs crawling on you.)

* They bite!

Crazy ants. Go away!

last night

So my little catsitter stint is almost over. I'm gonna miss my little kitty nephew and niece! And I'm gonna miss this couch. But I won't miss the commute, though I did get a lot of reading done. I was gonna walk to the bus tomorrow, but now I'll have all sorts of stuff weighing me down... all those groceries I bought! heh heh. So I guess I'll take the transfer bus.

Uh oh, Stephen Carrington's new wife (Heather Locklear!) just found out he's not rich, like she thought! ...I liked Stephen better when he was gay. Now he's all straight and wants to be a race car driver, whereas he used to read poetry and look troubled.

history of me in numbers!

"Discalculia" is what they call a sort of dyslexia with numbers. I wish it had been *around* when I was in elementary school, and I could have received help! Memorizing times tables was a nightmare.

Anyway, I made a typical discalculia mistake with my catsitting! Way back when I was putting it on my calendar, I somehow got it in my head that I was here til May 12--probably because last time they came back on April 12. Typical! I make these kinds of mistakes all the time.

Here are some of the possible "symptoms", that apply to me:

• Difficulty with everyday tasks like checking change and reading analog clocks.
• Difficulty with multiplication-tables, and subtraction-tables, mental arithmetic, etc.
• May do fairly well in subjects such as science and geometry, which require logic rather than formulae, until a higher level requiring calculations is obtained.
• Particularly problems with differentiating between left and right.
• -->People make fun of me for this one all the time! -->Difficulty navigating or mentally "turning" the map to face the current direction rather than the common North=Top usage.
• Having particular difficulty mentally estimating the measurement of an object or distance (e.g., whether something is 10 or 20 feet (3 or 6 metres) away).
• Often unable to grasp and remember mathematical concepts, rules, formulae, and sequences.
• An inability to read a sequence of numbers, or transposing them when repeated, such as turning 56 into 65.
• Difficulty with games such as poker with more flexible rules for scoring.
• Difficulty in activities requiring sequential processing, from the physical (such as dance steps)
  
• --> Well I sorta got past this by making myself take stats! --> The condition may lead in extreme cases to a phobia or durable anxiety of mathematics and mathematic-numeric devices/coherences.

When writing, reading and recalling numbers, these common mistakes occur:
number additions, substitutions, transpositions, omissions, and reversals.

May have difficulty grasping concepts of formal music education. Difficulty sight-reading music, learning fingering to play an instrument, etc.

May have poor athletic coordination, difficulty keeping up with rapidly changing physical directions like in aerobic, dance, and exercise classes. Difficulty remembering dance step sequences, rules for playing sports.

Difficulty keeping score during games, or difficulty remembering how to keep score in games, like bowling, etc. Often loses track of whose turn it is during games, like cards and board games. Limited strategic planning ability for games, like chess.

--> I much prefer to have a consistent schedule. I have trouble setting my alarm at the right time, leaving home at the right time. Eg. I might need to be at work by 11, and get it into my head that I need to leave at 11. --> Students have difficulty with the abstract concepts of time and direction (e.g. inability to recall schedules, and unable to keep track of time). They may be chronically late.

random pics

a day in the life of the catsitter

Today it was warm and sunny, so I took the 10 minute walk to Loblaw's to buy some groceries. I'm not buying groceries to cook with (other than a little pasta), because I don't have all my tools and ingredients here. But I'm concerned about eating some vegetables!

So I tried buying one of those new juices with vegetables hidden in. (Not the V8 brand, some other brand.) Oh my God, it tasted exactly like vomit. Like I'd eaten blueberries and carrots and such, and then puked. I poured it all down the drain. Shiver.

Now I'm back in the little basement corner on my favourite couch. I had sushi while watching The Dollhouse, I finished my taxes, I'm halfway through my laundry, and now I have to pay some bills, and I'm watching Dynasty, and waiting until I can eat some cookies.

OMG Blake is trying to give Krystal a pearl necklace, when she's had a miscarriage and can't have children. Men (or soap writers) are so clueless.

And JR is on his tower of pillows. Dreaming that I will play cat dancer with him.

money money money

Getting money back, so I don't have to worry about being late with my taxes. Well... this'll be my last year getting a refund, since I'm sure it's because of my studentness. As of 2009... I have to get back to Contributing to Society.

So thank you... thank you all my fine full-time working friends. As repayment for all your tax support while I was in schoolz, I'll try not to Lord It Over You with all my genius political knowledge!

I used Ufile this year, instead of Quicktax, and it is a MUCH better system. At lease for my simple returns. In the past I always got tripped out in two areas, the same ones, each year. And Ufile made it much simpler. And then I also discovered that for students they have a deal this year that it's free. So I'm not even paying to file! All very exciting.

But for those paying, here's where the tax dollars went in 2007:

1. interest charges on Canada's debt (14 cents per dollar)

2. transfer payments to provinces and territories (54 cents)
- persons: oldy people, unemployment, child rearing, etc.
- health and social programs
- other: Aboriginals, farmers, foreign aid...

3. operating the government
- defence (7 cents on tax dollar)
- coppers, prisons etc. (3 c)
- Canada Revenue Agency (3 c)
- other (11.5 c) : environment, fisheries, justice, transport, Canadian Food Inspection, Parliament...
- Crown corps: better watch your CBC! Get your 1 cent worth.

4. budgetary surplus --> went to debt reduction