Bloody Hellraiser

After all the computer crap last night, I had to be really nice to my boyfriend. I try to be nice to him always, but I wanted to be especially good after he saved my computer baby. [Computer baby sounds really hokey, but I have to say I have more affection for this one since I bought it than my previous computer which I was given for free, even though I appreciate the price of free so much. I feel similarly affectionate to my car which is the first I bough after two that were given to me.] So, my way of being good to my boyfriend - I watched a horror movie with him.

I NEVER watch horror movies and after watching Hellraiser with him last night, I remember why. Even hokey 80's horror flicks scare the daylights out of me. I'm already scared enough in this world from real attackers that I don't need to add fear of supernatural or unnatural things. Hellraiser was so fake and really a strange story - I imagine it's probably a great book, but horror books also scare me, so I stopped reading them, too - but I was still scared. Okay, this is going to get personal, brace yourself: I was so scared that I made my boyfriend walk into the livingroom with me and turn on all the lights so I knew no one was in the house and then I peed with the door open. Huge taboo for me. Bathroom time is private time, but I couldn't be in there alone.

It's a good thing I have to go see my landlord tonight and can't go to the scary movie night he's going to, otherwise I'd be in real trouble. I just hope I can get through the "haunted tour" we're doing tomorrow!

Computer Maintenance for the Un-Savvy

So I tried to maintain my computer tonight and almost blew it up. My boyfriend is a computer whiz, so he was able to fix what I broke, but we started off the evening thinking I might have to buy a new computer!

It started with me deleting the "guest" account he had created for himself on my computer - you know, when you start up your computer and you select the use icon from the front page and enter your password. That account had been painfully slow and really unusable anyways, so I got rid of it. Then I decided to defragment my C:// - after the analysis, the computer reported that it needed to defragment, but didn't have enough memory to do it properly.

So I decided to delete Norton Internet Security software which I'm no longer using. That un-installation was taking a long time, so I left it while I went to work, thinking I would start the defrag when I got home since I had company coming and wouldn't be on the computer anyways. When I got home, the computer was frozen in the middle of the un-install, same place it had gotten hung up before. Unfortunately, I forced an End Program through Task Manager and then couldn't restart the uninstall and started getting messages that my computer was dangerously low on memory. We later learned that lots of people have this problem and the Norton is a bitch to remove. Removing your Norton program using SymNRT helped though.

Before we did that or found that, we cleared up a ton of space (from 60 MB available to about 3GB) using CCleaner and deleting some duplicated or unnecessary programs from my hard drive. After all that, we ran Spybot and Ad-Aware which found NOTHING! Previously, while running on my Norton subscription with automatic live updates, both programs had found critical objects that required attention. So, in addition to being a pain in the ass to remove and almost shutting me down, Norton wasn't even providing the same level of security I now have with AVG, a free Internet security program. I can't recommend AVG more glowingly - it automatically updates and scans the computer EVERY DAY.

So, from now on, cross my heart, it's a weekly computer maintenance day with the following tasks in order of operations:

• Backup all
• CCleaner
• Check for unwanted/unneeded programs and delete
• Clean up unneeded documents and files
• Spybot and AdAware
• Defragment
• Restart several times
• Backup all

And, as part of the beauty of the Internet, you may start to see some things posted here as a place for safe-keeping. Oh, how I love and hate technology.

Free Is A Very Good Price

At work, I get free food. Not just a meal or catered event from time to time, but bags full of groceries. I can't even estimate how much money I save from getting free things at work. I prepared a delicious meal of fresh made spinach fettuccine with sun dried tomato pesto, fire roasted diced tomato, pumpkin, zucchini and carrots, for example, and the only things I bought were the canned pumpkin and fresh zucchini. I love this job.

I also love being a naturopath and the freebies and discounts I get there. As part of our graduation package, which I had never opened, one of the vitamin distributors we work with gave each graduate $100 credit towards our first order of $100 or more. So, I get $100 worth of products at wholesale cost - FREE. It's time to order as my stock is quite depleted, so I'm happily going to use them. Did it work to create favorable feeling towards their company? Yes. Do I care? No. What's interesting is they are a distributor and not a manufacturer, so I would probably have used them anyways, but I feel even better using them after they were generous - since I graduated in a group of 100 and there are 3 schools with similar class sizes, we're talking about a potential of $30,000 in gift certificates that they gave away.

Two Weeks Notice

I've been on vacation for the past two weeks. I come back rejuvenated, sorta...but definitely inspired. Again. It seems around every corner there is something to inspire me to change something about myself, something about my life. No difference on vacation and if anything, even more motivation for change.

Upon my return, I wanted nothing more than to be alone with my dogs and my thoughts, but that was not to be until several hours later. Even though I feel a little like I already blew my post-vacation resolutions, I haven't really and I can still stick with my resolutions for the rest of the day. I'm just not sure I can catch my blog up by the end of the day like I had hoped! :)

I've wrote a lot during the first leg of my trip and learned a lot about what interests me and what's important for me during vacations, so that may be more expressive and more in-the-moment. During the second half, I luxuriated a little more and didn't write after the first days attempt failed so miserably (I got distracted... a lot), so I'll just be recalling a lot of what happened. Maybe lists - those are just easier. At any rate, this is notice that the previous two weeks entries were actually entered after this one, though the experiences were appropriate for dates.

Day Three: Nanaimo

Ah, Nanaimo - the quaint little port city that could. I don't recommend it for anyone who wants big museums or the city life, but I do recommend it for those who want to feel real Canadian hospitality, get closer to nature and maybe enjoy a slow day in an Old Town. A and I tendered to shore in a little boat [not so little, they seat 150] and spent about an hour wandering around Nanaimo. Having heard that Nanaimo has a good population of Somoan's and that outrigger paddling is very popular there, I was pleased to see both dragon boats and a couple outriggers before I even set foot on land. The only souvenir that appealed to us, still in tourist mode, was a VHS copy of a cheesy 80's movie, the name of which I can't even recall, since we had a VCR in our room and were heading back to the ship for the rest of the day and wanted something to do. Were I to go back, I would take advantage of the beautiful hiking nearby. The shore excursions also included some farm visits which could have been really fun.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the AquaSpa, napping and, of course, eating.

Dinner:
Spinach and Gorgonzola Stuffed Pastry
Chilled Melon and Mint Soup
Filet Mignon
Baked Alaska

Everything was delicious, but if I never eat meat again, it will be too soon! At the end of dinner, the entire staff was presented to us and the waiters came out to some shipboard song bearing baked Alaska to every table. I didn't realize that Baked Alaska was simply an ice cream cake - it was delicious, but come on - it's ice cream cake! I have to say that it's a good thing for my rapidly increasing waist that this was only a three-day cruise!

Day Two: Victoria and My BIRTHDAY!

By the time we woke up, we were already at our first Port of Call: Victoria, BC. Our plans in Victoria were kind of sketchy, but we met up with friends at breakfast and then headed to shore. Victoria was great! The downtown near the waterfront had many interesting businesses, including a delicious chocolatier, many souvenir shops and a bug museum! We browsed the bug museum gift shop but didn't enter - later, I learned that several of our friends were inside when we left and I was disappointed we didn't go in with them.

After browsing about for some time, we headed to a tea house for a real English style tea. It was amazing. The tea was warm and lovely - and we all said lovely a lot while we were drinking it - but it was the food that blew me away. Now I know why they made white bread! These little sandwich were so delicate and delicious. There were three-tiered trays of food and enough for us each to have one of everything, so there was no picking and choosing - I tried everything, much to my stomach's dismay, but how could I not?! It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. A, E and I walked back to the wharf after tea and got to enjoy some other sights.


I do regret that we didn't have more time in Victoria, because it was such an interesting place and I was particularly fascinated by the Royal BC Museum. A promised that we'll go back sometime in the summer and enjoy a mix of indoor and outdoor activities!

Back onboard, it was time for yet another dinner! This evening, I got my first taste of escargot, which was prepared in a butter and pesto sauce and was delicious! I thought I would never eat this, but Sasha had ordered several orders and was sharing it so I felt almost dared to try it. A tried it after I told him how good it was and he enjoyed it as well. Sasha said that as far as escargot goes, this was really good, but that when it's bad, it can be really bad. Based on that, I don't think A and I will be trying it willy-nilly, but neither do I think that will be our last experience with it. The rest of dinner was just so-so.

It seems that I either shared my birthday with many other cruisers or the wait staff does all the birthdays on Saturday night, because all around the room, waiters were doing birthday cakes and "happy birthday" songs to other cruisers from our dinner course onward. I think I may have been the last person to get cake and a song, which delayed our tables dessert and we were then somewhat unceremoniously rushed out of the dining room, but it was nice to get birthday cake and a song, even if we didn't get to eat it.

After that, I was feeling a little seasick, so I had a nap while everyone else went to that evenings entertainment: a ventriloquist. A said I didn't miss much, but another of our friends were singled out and brought onstage to act as the dummy! When A returned, he really wanted us to take a walk to the back of the ship - he said the view was amazing and that maybe some fresh air would help me feel better. We did walk, I didn't feel better and in fact, looking out at the water brought the nausea on a little more firmly. So we headed back to our room, but on the way, he took me through a door marked "private event" behind which was our entire group yelling "Surprise!"

It was my surprise birthday party, which I almost missed due to my seasickness! A and Kurt had arranged for our private use of the small bar just down the hall from my room for several hours. The group welcomed me in with hugs, offers to buy me drinks and many happy returns. I felt so loved. Another cake and song and then cards and gifts, including a Rubberneck CD and a QueenBee bag from A. Just what I wanted! How did he get it onboard without me noticing? He had Joanne smuggle it on for him, the little sneak! Speaking of sneaking, after about an hour, the party was getting pretty raucous, so I snuck out to go back to bed, still seasick, but happy about a birthday well-spent.

Day One: Seattle

Headed out today on a three day cruise leaving Seattle and heading to Victoria and Nanaimo in British Columbia. Already feeling a little tired after having just returned from my week back east, but this already looks like it's going to be fun!


FB and E met A and I (where were you?) at my place to drive up together. A lucky detour for coffee and toilets resulted in my first contact with the Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile. That was fun. When we arrived in Seattle, I started to feel a little uneasy - my first cruise! But most everything went off without a hitch - most because unfortunately one of our group didn't have all of the identification documents needed for boarding. I haven't ever been privy to such happening, but he was literally turned away. Because he'd ridden with us, he didn't have a ride to get anywhere, so that was an unfortunate and unexpected drama for him. Luckily, he didn't use E's luggage tags as he had considered doing or he would have been unable to retrieve his luggage as well!


Once onboard, it was all the junk food you can eat, but it was pretty good junk food. E and I took the Aquaspa tour which we were both really interested in since we've considered doing cruise ship acupuncture. We were both suitably impressed and cruise acupuncture earned a few extra points. We signed up to use the Thassalotherapy Pool, which is a big hot tub with extra-strong jets that come from all directions - it's like getting a wet massage and soak all in one. The water has mineral salts, too, so it's detoxifying. We used that every day and it was probably the best money spent during the trip!

There was a lot of hustle bustle about the boat that afternoon seeing everything there was to offer, dancing at the bon voyage party, getting pictures of the rainbow over Seattle as we headed out and then it was on to dinner. It was an informal night, which means no tie or jacket required. Ugh. It's a small gesture and women love it - why don't men understand that? Dinner was pretty interesting though - you really can get whatever you want, in any quantity on the cruise - it's really an exercise in gluttony, but I enjoyed every minute of it! The highlights of dinner were the Duck Confit appetizer that my waiter tried to talk me out of, A's Chilled Tangerine Soup and my salad, which had julienned daikon radish in it for a little spice. It was fantastic! My prime rib and twice baked potato were only okay, but the Creme Brule was great.

After dinner, it was onto the entertainment for the evening: a comedian! How fun! Except that our group got front row seats and A and I ended up the butt of several jokes. It was fun to say on the mic that I'm a physician, though, and when I said naturopath, someone in the audience "woo-hoo'd" me. I never learned who that was, but they weren't a part of our group. I enjoyed A's discomfort when the comedian asked when we were getting married, but that's just a little bit evil, right? Karaoke after that and then to bed exhausted after an eventful day!