Yippee Ki Yey

My idle pleasure today is had by sipping a really yummy Cafe Mocha from Starbucks. Its got whipped cream on the top and a lovely hot chocolate/coffee mix below. Hot, rich and totally delish - perfect for a December day! Its my consolation for coming in to work on a Friday.

0C, cloudy, 70 % chance of flurries, clearing in the afternoon.

Today's word of the day is yips which is a noun for a state of nervous tension affecting an athlete (as a golfer) in the performance of a crucial action. I can't speak for this word, but I'm pretty sure Carm could. He's talked about the golfers getting the yips many times when we are watching golf on tv (yawn).

At Costco we picked up a set of glass storage/microwave dishes with the "lock" type tops (GlassLock). I think these will be great on the camper. They are a bit on the heavy size but make up for it in functionality. I don't like using plastic in the microwave, so these will be good dishes for cooking and then storing the leftovers. I will just need a couple onboard. It gives me a tiny camping fix.

Tonight we picked up the car from the mechanics. It got a new, well deserved clutch. Our car, a Subaru, has almost 383,000 km and is running great (aside from the clutch which was its original one). We hope to get at least another year from it. Our last two cars, the Mazda 323 and this one, have been amazing cars, running virtually trouble free (touch wood!). We re-homed the Mazda when it was over 323,000 km - pretty good value for the money! The Subaru was a more expensive buy but has also proven itself to be worth every penny. I hope the truck gives as good service.

Dump the Dump

I told Carm today that I wouldn’t put his childish and moronic ideas (his words!) in my blog – I have plenty of my own inane ideas! (Feb 19, 2010 word of the day – inane – empty, insubstantial; lacking significance, meaning or point; silly. Perfectly describes this blog!)

Today at work I helped with setting up the details for a new time tracking system that will track everyone’s time against certain projects. I have to admit that I got a certain amount of pleasure (not really idle but counts just the same),  knowing that I will not have to participate. These things tend to gobble up large amounts of time for what seems like very little benefit. I suppose having upper management know that your time is spent supporting some large, high profile projects helps to justify our existence.

It’s still a little warm for December – if you can call 1C, cloudy, chance of flurries, warm. The average temp for December is -7.1C (18.5F), a good bit colder than today. Historically the coldest day for December was -34.4C (-30F) – yikes! (Environment Canada has great tools for finding these things out – but do you really want to know that it could get that cold?)

Ecotone is today’s word of the day. It is a noun for the transition area between two adjacent ecological communities. Unfortunately I thought of a use for it right away. L

There’s a plan to build a new dump in our township, just 11km down the road from us. The proposal is for it to be built in an old brick quarry. While this might seem at first glance to be no big deal since there is already a hole, there are some ecological issues that have arisen. First off, the quarry collects a lot of water which is a problem in at least 2 ways; first – the geese use it on their migration; second – where will the toxic water drain to? The aquifer that feeds our wells? To compound matters, there is little to no ecotone between the dump and the neighbouring farms. What makes this especially frustrating is this dump is intended for a city that’s not even in our township. We will be the ones left footing the bill if there are environmental consequences.

Plangent

I was stuck in the office for lunch again (rain) – I guess my idle pleasure is the same as yesterday – closing my eyes and imagining myself somewhere else (does it count for double if I do it in a meeting?)

Today’s word of the day is plangent (having a loud reverberating sound; having an expressive and especially plaintive quality). Plangent is not a word I have ever used in conversation or in writing – until today – strangely the first meaning fits perfectly with what I was already going to talk about!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve Sarajevo - 12 24 - Click here for more free videos

Last night we watched Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas program, a nice story with a great soundtrack. Their signature song (Carol of the Bells or Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12_24) is from this program; it starts softly with string instruments and builds up to a dramatic, plangent ending.  “Holy Night”, sung by Michael Crawford was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes.

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O Holy Night Trans Siberian Orchestra - More amazing video clips are a click away

One of my co-workers is going to their concert this December – I wish I was already retired so that I could also go. She went last year and enjoyed it so much she's taking all her grown-up kids this year. When we are retired it will be easier to go to these events - no more getting up at 5am the next morning to go to work.