This and That

Movie Time: The Duchess

Yesterday, my daughter Tegan came over to visit me and we ordered in pizza and rented a DVD to watch. We rented the movie, The Duchess starring Kia Knightley, Ralph Fiennes and Chorlotte Rampling and directed by Saul Dibb. It was rated 3 ½ stars on Flickster.

The movie tells the story of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, who was born Georgiana Spencer and through marriage to the Duke, became the Duchess of Devonshire. She was an ancestor of Princess Diana.

The movie is based on the biography titled Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman. The biography was crafted from an extensive set of personal letters which she left to her estate so it reflects very closely the actual opinions and emotions which was felt by this tragic love figure. I am going to put that book on my "want to read" list.

She was a sought after London socialite who had a large entourage of literary and political friends and was renowned for her beauty and sense of style. The Duchess was also known not only for her political campaigning and her love of gambling but also for her unconventional marriage arrangement with the 5th Duke of Devonshire, William of Cavendish.

Her marriage was not one of love and it was said that her husband was the only one in London who did not love her. Like Princess Diana’s marriage, it was not a happy one and it was very unconventional as there were openly 3 people in involved.

She introduced her husband to her friend, xxx, who came to stay with them for a time. Her friend became her husband’s mistress – and not a secret one. Times were different then and the women of those times had no rights and could legally beat their wife and take their children from them and leave them with nothing.

She eventually had a passionate love affair with Lord Grey (who later became Prime Minister) however at the threat that her husband would take her children and also have her lover’s political aspirations ruined she gave him up along with their love child Eliza Courtney. Sarah, Duchess of York is a descendant from this line.

She continued to live with her husband and his mistress, until her death.

It was a sad tale and perfect for a “girlie movie”. Tegan and I appreciated it for the wonderful dresses and beautiful hats. We felt outrage when her husband took her girlfriend for a lover and when she had to give up her true love in order to ensure his future as Prime Minister would be assured. I was in the mood for a sad movie and it fit the bill perfectly.

To see the Trailer on You Tube:

It has been 6 weeks!

Well today marks the end of 6 weeks since my eye surgery. As promised I have taken new photos and present them now for a verdict. What do you think about the result? I have had lots of positive reaction - but the most important reaction is the one that I have. My eyes are not heavy any more and at the end of the day I don't strain to keep myself looking awake! Eyes wide open is the operative word. I think I should be able to include them as a business expense because I look more alive and not sleepy! Anyway, I am pleased.

Not to mention at this point they are only 80% healed and they will improve yet. I chose to show 2 pictures with makeup on. My eyes are still a bit swollen and red, but it is easy to hide this with makeup at this point.

Comments anyone?

Can you tell the before and after?

Try as I might to multitask, sometimes that is not possible. Often as I write my blog I either listen to radio or TV as a backdrop to my work. When I started my blog today I put on Radio 2 and there was an audio documentary airing about Frank Zappa. I ended up putting my blog aside as it captured all of my attention in this last hour.

The documentary was titled "Music of Frank Zappa". I copied the following from the CBC web site promo for your benefit: "The genre didn't matter-rhythm and blues, do-wop, jazz, classical- Frank Zappa embraced them all and folded them all into his own compositions. Frank Zappa made popular music that was challenging, and serious music that was listenable; to him there was only one type of music, good music; there was only one audience, all of us; and there was only one time, the present. "

It is mostly comprised of close friends, family and musical collaborators in conversation with the host. They recounted how he worked, interesting things about the music and personal details about the man himself. They also played a selection of his music either in whole or pieces to illustrate a discussion point that was being raised. His music is music you can't be doing anything else while it is playing - unlike other music which can be a nice backdrop. I had no idea he was such a well regarded composer of music. From listening to his songs one realizes that he was very inventive, but there are many other noteworthy qualities associated with his compositional genius. They talked about definitive "Zappa cords" and also some of the other compositions which were not recorded by him but were the result of his creative musical genius.

This is the second of a 3 part series. I think I will try and catch the other 2.
You can hear all of the Zappa documentary on the Inside The Music audio archives page at: http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/archives_ITM.html

It's Saturday and I am so glad for the weekend! It was an adjustment getting back to work, but I will admit that I like the routine of somewhere to go each day and the challenge to my brain as I try to ensure that my client sees value in what they pay me. As a contract worker I am in a situation which holds a whole lot of uncertainty as a contract reaches an end or (in the case right now with my RBC client) if there are indications that they may not need my services too much longer. People hire me to manage IT Projects and that means a finite life for the job - each project has an end date. At that point I go hunting for something new. Usually not a big deal - my job is in demand. I have been fortunate to get quite a few longer term contracts, but that of course is the luck of the draw.

In the current environment it might not be as easy to find another job. The big project I had been managing for RBC over the last year and a half finished in November. They really want to keep me around and so they have found me something small to keep me busy and they are looking internally to find a bigger project so that they could have me fully utilized. Given the economic climate of frugal spending IT projects are being cancelled everywhere, including RBC. So it may be that in a week or two they will give me the news that they have nothing to keep me busy and I will be hitting the pavement with the rest of the unemployed until I find something. I do have a bit of a cushion put aside in case there is a layover between contracts, so it is not as catastrophic as might be for others less careful. Having said that, I would prefer to continue working without interruption as it allows retirement to stay in sight and not recede into the distance as a goal accompanied by a fear that it will not ever be in sight. Lets hope I hear good news from RBC over the next week or two.

I thought it about time I gave everyone an update on the progress of my recovery from my eye surgery. Looking not bad, if I do say so myself! With a bit of makeup you can't tell that my eyelids are still a bit bruised, particularly with my glasses on. You don't really notice that they are swollen. I am happy that they are no longer red rimmed and irritated. I look forward with great anticipation over what they might look like at the 6 week point!

I had promised another instalment of my travelogue from my December Cruise. However that is going to have to wait until tomorrow. I have a long list of "To Do's" for today, the most important of which is catching up with some bookkeeping the tax man requires I do. I have decided that if I can put in a good 4 hours on this I will reward myself with time mapping out some creative projects I have in mind. One is a submission to CBC's "Canada Writes" contest. They are seeking submissions of entries of 200 words in one of 5 categories. The contest closes on Feb 7th, so I need to figure out what categories I will enter (one is blogging and for sure Iwill send a blog entry to them). I will let you know what I can come up with.

So, onward with other stuff - time is marching!

Friday - Work or Play?

Today must be a quick post. While I write my blog I have to decide whether I get ready and go up north and visit with friends or get at that bookkeeping I have been ignoring. If I can get into the bookkeeping that would be best - I can go up north tomorrow morning and stay just one night. Either option requires me to get moving and get at it in short order. First will make some breakfast - fried eggs I think. I have a running contest with myself to see how well I can flip eggs without an egg turner. You know, the way chefs do - with a flick of the wrist when holding the frying pan, if you have a stick free frying pan - the eggs will jump up in the frying pan and turn over. Ok, little things occupy little minds. But how many of you guys can flip eggs with a flick of your wrist and no spatula?

Some more pictures and I promise the last of the "bedroom window" series. The pictures don't do it real justice anyway. Suffice to say that my view is a source of inspiration and the view seduces my eyes in its direction a lot. You have seen a pretty representative sample of winter time pictures now. I will wait until the lake turns bright blue in the middle of summer to bring you another set of photos.


Another sunny day but the cold is making everyone a bit weary. I did go out and listen to Greg Wyard. He is pretty good and plays every Thurs night at my local pub, Brazen Head Irish Pub. He also plays every Tue night at Fionn MacCool's Irish Pub. No, he does not play Irish Rover's music but covers of a lot of stuff I like and some of his own as well. He is an incredible guitar player and has a great voice. You can get a feel for his music on You Tube.

If you like his music he does an amazing cover on this You Tube: Amazing Must see! The Who cover "Baba O'Riley" ... There is also a You Tube of his City TV Breakfast Television program promoting his CD.

And the best news is that I don't look too rough any more. See for yourself in this latest (with a bit of coverup makeup over the last bit of redness and bruising). I am still quite an unfinished product - my eyes are red and swollen (looks like I was out on a bender last night), but at least I don't look like I have been in a bar fight. So I sat on my own and had a beer and tried unsuccessfully to get my iPhone to download internet news pages to read (don't know what was with that - I was able to use other internet accessing applications). I gave up and just sat and listened to the music.

Got home in time to catch the evening news and hear about the massive power outage in the City. Glad it didn't extend all the way down to my place. Given the temps it would be damn cold waking up this morning. They don't expect the power to come back on for the most of the folks until 10 p.m. tonight. Not a fun way to spend 24 hours.

The other item to be seen out of my bedroom window, aside from the awsome view, is my birds eye view of "The Hole". Actually in about 2 years "The Hole" will be converted to a set of condo apartment towers and I have bought one on the 19th floor of the western most building - facing west. At least they hold my downpayment and I get to pay them the rest of purchase price once they have it finished - probably early 2011. I bought that condo 2 years ago and it was originally supposed to be finished late 2008. HA!! So when I sold my house I bought this condo, "Battery Park", one block north of it, to live in until the other one is ready. I guess I will flip one of the two when the time comes. In the meantime, I get to watch what is happening in "The Hole". Right now they are just starting to pour concrete at the bottom of what will be the lowest parking level. Incidently, you can also see the Toronto Island Airport and the train tracks in this view - my window shows me planes, trains and automobiles!

Anyway, I can now check off "Blog Done" on my Daily To Do List. Next, I need to see if I can get fired up about the book keeping which is calling my name!

Wednesday Morning - Cold and Crisp and Fresh

I am late today with my blog, been out having my eye progress assessed by the Doc. He is happy, says I heal fast - bruises will be all gone in 4 or 5 days and swelling not very noticable. OK, so a pic for those of you who are wondering how bad it is. If you are just joining my blog, it was much, much worse even 3 or 4 days ago. My cheeks and jaw are still a little bit swollen, but I am well on my way to recovery. Doctor also said I could lose as many pillows as I like! Hurrah! I get to sleep lying down tonight. But still on my back. :( I have to wait until the 2 week mark to sleep on my side.

The bit of trivia for this morning is the new word "bromance". I like to keep up on pop culture and this term has now been coined to describe the friendship we see among 20 something guys whose motto is "Bros before Hos"... (I don't think they actually mean Hos but are making a statement about women in general and were looking for a rhyming word with Bro.) Apparently guys now have a whole new phase inserted into their growing up years. After being an adolescent then a teenager they do not now move directly into adulthood. No, after they finish school they move back home (or stay there if they never left) and enter into "guyland". Guyland is a decade which comes in the 20s and as todays socialogists are noting, rather than doing the 5 items that mark adulthood (moving from home, getting a job, getting married ,and starting a family - hmm, I forget the last one) they have a decade of guy frathood where guy things and guy friends rein supreme. Apparently there is no limit on how long "guyland" can last.

I am sure this information is casting great fear into parents who are hoping their man sons will please move out and become an adult. Come to think of it I know one guy who has managed to stay in guyland into his 50s. He has managed to convince quite a number of "women of the season, year or decade" to accept his peter pan needs and let him pretend to be in guyland. Apparently it depends on the women they meet and finding one that manages to tame the stallion instinct. Today's information was garnered from today's broadcast CBC Q program. They interviewed Guyland author Michael Kimmel.

So what is "bromance"? While us ladies find close friendships between women of the same sex neither remarkable nor threatening to our sexuality apparently not the same can be said for men. Now that there is a decade of "hanging with the homies", we now need a label for the best buddies who are inseparable in guyland. In order to ensure that the straight buddies who hang together are not confused as part of a the gay couple they need a word to describe the friendship. The urban dictionary defines Bromance as "the inseparable relationship between two or more heterosexual, often action-sports-participating, males. similar to the "hetero-life-mate", but based more on surf/skate/snow participation, party attendance and constant exchange of myspace comments and instant messages. ... "after a full night of sessioning street rails and drinking, dave and brian's bro-mance appears to be in full bloom."

To change the topic, it seems we are being plunged into a January deep freeze. There were neat smoke plummes rising up from the buildings to the east and the lake on the east. A photo I took today at around 7:30 this morning: The sun was just coming up but the sky was clear. It is noon now and it has changed, some snow flurries which turns my view into a uniform grey canvas, ready for the next portrait depending on the weather yet to come. The weather forecast said -30 with the windchill, but just now the weather guy admitted that there was no wind. So I guess it is more like -13 which is the predicted high of the day. If there is no wind and you dress for the temp I'd say a it's a good day for a walk.

What else is on tap for today? I think it is chore day. I have some book keeping to do and a cleanup in the kitchen is in order. Will try and get back at that other extra blog I promised yesterday and started but did not finish. Maybe today it will appear.

Snow falls against my bedroom window

Place: my bedroom - my windows on the world.

Time: apres 1st coffee, which is not early morning, because I am stuck at home recovering from surgery and I am staging a "bed in" this week. For this week, I have decided that there are only 2 reasons to get out of bed before 10 a.m. , to get coffee and to take the dog for a walk (avec sunglasses). After 10 my stomach will give me a 3rd reason, food.

Mood: upbeat Listening to CBC Radio 1: Q - A.C. Newman playing in the background"Like a Hitman/Like a Dancer" - catchy tune! (will check the exact name tomorrow when the Q playlist is published)

Anyway, I was listening to CBC radio 2 (which by the way has really done a turn about from what it was just last year!) Changed to Radio 1 as I was getting irritated - just wish my reception was better, some other station keeps intruding in the background. I am looking out my windows to the world - this is the most awsome bedroom ever with a wall of windows looking south over the lake and to the east, CN Tower and the downtown office buildings. I open both of my "pinhole blinds" [pinhole blinds: my term - they are roller blinds which allow some but not all of the sunlight to come through - just enough to filter the sun to a moderate light in day and to dull somewhat the night time city lights] Just got out of bed and took a couple of pics to show you what I see today. The first pic is my view east, which is less than spectacular given that it is snowing. The second is the view south from where I sit now. Again, not so spectacular just right now. But it is not without attraction even today. It is alway in the foreground a sea of motion and sound day or night. There are at least 10 cars constantly in view moving along the Gardiner Expressway - even at 4 am in the morning! and they move quickly - it takes a car about 7 seconds to move from one end of my window to the other. It is the opposite of a serene country postcard scene it is all energy and action - really alive and bustling. The upper part of the view to the south, which does not show up well today is Lake Ontario. On a good day I can see across to Rochester, NY. The sun plays on the lake and it changes colour and reflection as the wind plays on its surface and clouds move overhead. Today it is a grey stormy sea. Always an interesting view to gaze out upon.

But enough of this chatter, first and foremost I must give an update on my eyes.

I am tired of sleeping sitting up. One of the required accommodations for a faster recovery is to not have a lot of extra fluid collect in the eyes, which when we sleep lying down is the case - ever wondered why your eyes are puffy in the morning? So the Doc says sleep with 4 pillows, which pretty much means I am sitting up. Ok, I have discovered that when tired I can sleep in any position, so except for the first night I have managed to stay unconsious for as much of the night as I usually do - which is almost always the full night. This is a good thing - I am suspecting that many do not have this sleeping skill as perfected as I do. So technically, I have had no problem sleeping. However, upon awakening I find that I am pretty sore from being in this position all night. I am thinking tonight I will remove 1 pillow and do this in each of the nights to come. Enough is enough - the pillows got to go.

Tomorrow I go see Doc again. Just another peek at the incision lines and a review of what I should/should not be doing. I have it down pat: nothing aerobic, no bending down, eye drops (I have used almost a full bottle already), vaselined greasy eyes (so the skin doesn't dry out), hot compresses to speed up the healing of bruises and lots of sleep. I have to "ha" about the sleep - maybe the Doc should try sleeping with 4 pillows. I have also come to know first hand that Vaseline is not a flattering facial makeup. Speaking of makeup - allowed after Day 7! Bring out that camoflage makeup - I think I shall go out to Brazen (my local pub) to hear some live music on Thurs night!)

Don't think there has been sufficient improvement in the eyes to load up another pic here - so those sitting on the edge of their seats will need to come back tomorrow.


A plug for the program Q on CBC Radio 1 - lots of interesting topics - from yesterday 's program promo: "Guest host Jonathan Torrens talks to graphic artist and writer Laurie Rosenwald on why all the wrong people have self-esteem". This might be going a bit far, I don't agree that ALL the wrong people, but maybe a good number of them need to spend some time thinking about whether they maybe should have a bit less self esteem. If you have listened to the podcast (or actual program) this is about a book (you can guess the title) - a funny book - tongue in cheek or maybe tongue sticking out of mouth or so it seems.

The author says self esteem is a myth - that it is the norm that people don't feel so good about themselves - or at least few think they are so good as to not needing improvement (those are the ones that the book title makes fun of). Actually, to change the slant that the headline for this would suggest, this book is a good one for people with lower self esteem - the author suggests that it is not such a good thing to aspire to have great self esteem. I think I will see if it is at the library. If you are interested you can replay the Q podcast of Jan 12th from the CBC Q website. And I am not saying whether I think I have great self esteem or not - I will just say that I believe humility is a virtue. If I find the book will provide a short review in a future blog.

Today's Q program gem questions whether we should have the right to call someone a Skank and a horse faced Hoe (or is it Ho?) in our blogs - apparently Google is being sued because there is a blogger who called a female celebrity that exact thing. Apparently, it depends on whether it is factually true. Not sure how one would prove that but I expect it would involve courts and expert testimony.

Douchebag is also a similar word which is allowed if true. This prompted me to sidetrack. What exactly is a douchebag (slang, not real english def? I realize that it is a derrogatory term, but who could you legitimately classify as one? So after a sidetrip to Wiki, I fetched the following definition: An individual who has an over-inflated sense of self worth, compounded by a low level of intelligence, behaving ridiculously in front of colleagues with no sense of how moronic he appears. Ok, so we all are a bit more knowledgable with our english language slang. And I can think of a few folks I think could be proven in a court of law to legitimately warrant the adjective douchebag. Sounds like douchebags are in the same group as Laurie's "wrong people to have self esteem".

Thanks to today's Q, I also found out that if you "upskirt" or "downblouse" (take a photo of a woman up her skirt or down ... in public) and then publish this on the web it is not against the law in the US. Wow - what a world we live in, eh? Apparently it has to do with us now all being potential celebrities (thanks to reality tv) and our paparazzi are worthy of protection. And paparazzi are allowed to downblouse or upskirt celebrities if the celebrities are not protective against their personal space when in public. (I guess if a photog were to hide under a sewer grate and snap photos of Brittany one would find that to be curious but not think it illegal). And for those of you who need to know, if you see a photo of your nether regions on the web (and can recognize them) you can claim to have been "upskirted", but cannot sue - at least in the US, not sure about in Canada. That is unless it was taken from a peep hole in the ladies room - which is of course illegal.

So just got the weather word - I can see snow melt drops stuck against my window, so judging that it is not too cold out there - snow has now stopped, however we are in for a plunge in temperatures and by tomorrow morning it is expected to be -20 celcius. What can I say - the roller coaster weather continues. Get out your balaclava folks.

Today seems to be a trivia day (but I hope to do a double header today and try my hand at entertaining everyone with Cruise Time Tales, watch for a second post later today)... so following is my last tid bit for today:

"Unfortunately, what triggers an avalanche is often consumed by it". Saw this in a headline ad this morning. This can be applied to a lot of problems (an avalanche is one big problem for the folks in the path of the snow, you must agree). So a serious and sobering thought - we are often the makers of our own misery. I can personally vouch for that having made myself lots of trouble to get out of in the time I have been on this planet. You can apply this to almost everything - we reap what we sow, etc etc.. But I draw the line on one thing - I do not agree with the extreme views on this grain of an idea being promoted as "The Secret". It seems to me that if we could truly make things happen simply by thinking our way there, the promoters would not need to promote these ideas, they could simply wish us all into submission.

I have to admit that I come from the school of hard work. In other words I believe you can be successful at anything you set you mind to, except we might not set our mind to so much it if we realized how much hard work is required to get there. We often give up on what we want to accomplish because it is too much work.

This leads me to the dwell briefly on premise behind the new TV series "Being Erica" - that is choices lead to consequences. She is luckily allowed to go back and remake some of the decisions she made when she was young and foolish - and I am guessing will find her life improving as she undoes those bad choices of the past. Too bad we all can't do that, eh? Best we can do is learn from our bad choices and learn to deal with the aftermath. Hopefully, not as deadly as an actual avalanche. And that is my word of wisdom for the day - actually, I think I should restrict myself to only 1 "word of wisdom" per week or else you might think I have more self esteem than I should. So I promise more sillier posts in the days to come. This is supposed to be fun reading, not "Mother Knows Best".

Tada for now.

Jeepers, creepers....where'd ya get them peepers

Jeepers, creepers... where'd ya get them eyes... or so the song goes.

So the Peepers are not that nice looking just yet. I will admit that.

And in answer the lyrical question, I bought them, as mentioned in my last post - should have used that as the title of my last post, but I just thought about that song and it appealed... and I am just now looking at my new eyes and get a good feel for what they will look like when healed. Awesome, I think. Well to be truthful they will still look like my eyes, just a lot less saggy. Those of you who are my new friends may not notice much at all after everything is healed up. But I will.

I think they will be a nice improvement. My friend, T.S.  sent me an email last night. I have been in almost daily contact with him over the last week, sending emails and pics (- thanks for the support T.S.). I do believe he is utterly flabbergasted at how awful I have been looking. He asked me if "knowing what I know now would I do this again?" My daughter Lilly said she felt like crying when she looked at me because it seems like I had the crap beat out of me. OK, so I am not so viewable just yet and my opinion must wait until factual evidence is available.

But what a question to be asked at this point! Shows his as yet unspoken judgement about my decision to do this. Kudos to you T. for leaving these thoughts unspoken. At this point the answer is easy - I am only "half baked" and any such conclusion can only be reached once I see the finished product and live with it for a while. I need to write him back this morning and tell him exactly that. While I am at it I will also tease him about what I can only assume to be a Saturday night date. Guess he is playing his cards close to his chest. We only agreed just a week or two ago that we were no longer "BF and GF". Noticed yesterday he was back advertising on LavaLife. (Yet another subject for a blog! - god, I will be blogging day and night to catch up with all the stuff I need to write). I decided to sit out of LavaLife for a bit yet... but I did update my "away" message so T.S. would know I had been on and therefore had seen that he was no longer "taking a break" . Might go back there in a week and see if any "bingo letters" have dropped into my hopper. T.S. tells me he gets so many "hello's" he can't keep up with them. But then that is another subject. Nothing against T.S. (actually he is quite hot) but there are far fewer men on these sites than women.

In 6 weeks I will be able to provide via this blog a preliminary answer to T.S.'s question - may even post a poll for you to tell me what you think. Just to give everyone a hint though, I am not having any second thoughts. Still quite happy with my choice despite a week of less than happy living. But the proof is in the final product. The doctor said after 2 weeks most of the bruising and swelling will be gone although will take 6 weeks to heal 90%. The real answer is to be had after one full year; it takes that long to reach the 100% mark. And of course other folks reactions to my new eyes will play a part - however my satisfaction will be the only thing that matters to me.

Looking on the bright side of my current circumstance (if you don't know me yet you will soon discover I like to look on the bright side), I have been able to listen to just about every song nominated for Obama's Play List on CBC - which has been some really fine listening to Canadian songs. For those of you who do not listen to CBC, they have a contest going at the moment. They are asking for email/phone in nominations for a play list of 49 Canadian songs to send to Obama on the occassion of his inauguration. Some damn good songs we Canadians have produced! This week we get to vote for the short listed songs. Listening to radio is about the only thing that I can do which doesn't tire my eyes and make them sore.

I did spend too much time on computer yesterday. I am jumping full into my New Years resolutions (see the list provided on the sidebar which cozies up nicely with my "bucket list" aka "43 Things" which is accessed via the link on the sidebar tool "Linkworthy"). Every day I will look over these lists and see what I can do tomorrow to futher what I want to accomplish. To this end, I perused the "Meet Up" sites and joined a few -skating, documentary movies, spanish music/dancing, book club and 35+ social. I looked up the Tai Chi nights for beginners and decided I should see if I can join up with a beginners class in progress on Thurs nights as a way of getting back into it. Once back "out there", in a few weeks, I will be joining in on a number of interesting activities with new friends. Also browsed around the "43 Things" site and added a couple of items to my life list. Last night's Golden Globe awards provided me with renewed interest in getting out to see some of the films which garnered the most kudos. In all more than my eyes could take at this point. They were sore by day's end. But I was happy with my day.

So what of today? I have to be careful not to over use my eyes. Found out yesterday how much they hurt after prolonged keyboarding. I also have to decide when I will be able to go up to Collingwood to visit my dear friends up there. I promised to go up and spend a few days during my time off. I am not supposed to drive until day 7 - hard to drive with tearly, blurry eyes that hurt. Since I have to see the Doc on Wed and go get my mammogram on Thurs, I might leave it now until after so as I can spend the weekend up there.

Also on tap for today is a long walk with my dog Bella, shown on the left. Bella is a great walker. Boy, sitting around is not helpful for my weight loss effort. I can't believe how last month's holiday (I went on a cruise just before Christmas - Ye Gads! - the subject of another post to come!) and the holiday season moved me back up the unhappy side of the scale. I am not allowed any aerobic exercise for 3 weeks, but walking is fine. So I need to walk.

And it is MONDAY! One week before I go back to work after my 5 week haitus. :( Getting kind of used to not having to work for a living. *sigh* Too bad I don't have a wealthy "benefactor".

Another beautiful sunny day. Cold, -4 or -10 with the wind chill but I will take that with sun over +2 and cloudy any day. Good day for a walk. Gonna see if I can do at least 5 K. Might be hard with Bella. She won't wear those doggie booties and she gets salt in her paws. I end up carrying her when that happens and with my eyes I am not supposed to bend down as yet. Hard not to bend down when you have to pick up your dog. Makes the blood flow to my head and that causes bleeding. I found that out first hand yesterday when I forgot and bent over to tie up my boot. Anyway, I digress. Got to get moving the day is moving on.

One closing item. Today's picture is one view from my bedroom here in my Liberty Village Condo. It is on the 21st floor looking south over the lake and east to the CN Tower. Wonderful views. Will show more pics of them in blogs to come.

2009 Year of Change

Last year, 2008, was my material girl year, I think. At least I did spend a hell of a pile of coin. (Note to self: create a blog, subject - last year's excesses. ) This year starts with the result of one of my major expenditures - over $9,000 in facial improvements. By the way that ain't a heck of a lot of surgery... unless you travel to India - which I did not. Of that amount about $800 was spent on botox and a small amount of facial filler (http://juvadermguide.com/2008/juvaderm-cosmetic-fillers-the-best-hyaluronic-acid-fillers-yet/) to fill up some major chin lines - which will need to be done again next year if i like the look. Not sure if I want to spend $1,000 or more a year to keep my chin looking young - or at least if I do I should cost/benefit the same effect with a lower face lift - will pay for itself in about 8 years...

The rest of the money was spent on an upper and lower Blepharoplasty or eyelid lift. Or more precisely, an upper lift and a lower bag removal. Not that my eyes were intolerably saggy and baggy. No, you can see from my blog photo (of course, touched up with makeup) that my eyes were not hideous. Although there was the little matter of photos when tired - the left eye always looked partially shut if the photo was taken at night. Made me look just a little bit stupid. Aside from that, it did bother me (the little voice "looking older Peggy") and so with a strategy of why fix this later when I can enjoy the fruits of the result now (while I have some hope of still being able to find a compatible significant other) - I decided to have the surgery as the finale of my year of the spend.

This is my untouched (no makeup) eyes "before photo".

Tuesday Jan 6th, Dr. Addison removed an 18mm wide strip of upper eyelid skin from each eye and sucked out the fat from under my lower eyelids and tightened them a tad also. Today is Sunday and I can finally see sufficiently and comfortably enough to use the computer for more than 5 minutes in a stretch. The swelling is starting to subside and I am getting a glimpse of my new eyes. I am thinking they will look great but at this point they still look very pissed off at me for subjecting them to this indignity. So be it. They will eventually thank me. But maybe not for as much as 6 weeks.

Will finish this later. Getting a bit uncomfortable and need to rest these peepers.

This is today's photo. For some reason my jaw is also swollen and bruised- apparently the swelling is affected by gravity. I have lots more pics from the last 5 days but they are all too scary to put up on the web. At least not unless along side a stunning "after" photo. Hopefully that will come.

Mobile Blogging from here.

By the way a note on the above "Mobile Blogging from here" - when I post from my iPhone it will give you my approximate location when posting the blog - but be aware that the iPhone GPS is not very accurate - seems to be as much as a half a mile off.

[Posted with iBlogger from my way kool iPhone]