We have a mouse. At least one, I think it's safe to assume it's not alone. It came out last night just as I was thinking to go to bed. As usually happens with mice, toads and other creepy jumpy creatures, I saw it out of the corner of my eye and then turned just in time to see it scamper under some of the boxes all over the apartment. So my packing is benefitting the rodent population. Todd called it Disneyland for Mice.

I talked to my Mom yesterday, she says she will bring the truck down, leaving Monday, if Graham hasn't already come down by then. Graham, my brother, is involved in a real estate deal he needs to finish before he can leave. But he does want to come down. Mom says he is looking forward to some time away from Liz, his current girlfriend. Sad to hear that, we all were hoping this would be his big break away from psycho Cheryl, the one who likes to give us death threats and come over to the house and attack people when she isn't stealing Mom's antiques. Cheryl should be locked up in an insane asylum, she was for awhile but Graham sponsored her and they let her out again. We don't know why he keeps going back for more. They fight and beat each other and she just hangs on like a blood sucking leech.

I have a lot of paper to sort through and hopefully trash more than I keep. I am always making notes for myself with URL, quotes, ideas, etc. Here are some quotes which I am typing into my blog before I throw out the paper they are scribbled on.

"If you have built castles in the air your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." Henry David Thoreau

"It is never too late to become what you might have been." George Eliot

"The history of all times, and of today especially, teaches that... women will be forgotten if they forget to think about themselves." Louis Otto-Peters

"What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window." Rudolph Erich Rascoe

"A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The waste basket has evolved for a reason." Margaret Atwood

"There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I'm greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed." John Kenneth Galbraith

"I get a warm feeling when I'm doing well, but that pleasure is pretty much negated by the pain of getting started each day. Let's face it, writing is hell." William Stryon

"I think most of us are torn. We have at least two people at war in our body. One person wants to retire and grow fabulous tomatoes, and the other wants to stand up on a pedestal and be worshipped and get bigger and bigger and bigger until she explodes." Bette Middler

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Eleanor Roosevelt

"A true traveler is never intent on reaching a destination and knows that his best adventures are ususally found off the original path."

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength that can not be defeated." Helen Keller

"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life." Anne Lamott

"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather

"Some think its holding on that makes one strong; sometimes its letting go." Sylvia Robinson

"The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way, and that's heaven." Natalie Goldberg

"You must do the things you think you can not do." Eleanor Roosevelt

"Writing comes more easily if you have something to say." Sholem Asch

"The best way to get something done is to begin." Anonymous

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." Benjamin Disraeli

"You may delay, but time will not." Benjamin Franklin

"Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is." Ernst Hemingway

"We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds." Hanmer Parsons Grant

"Excellence is not an act but a habit." Aristotle

"Its the good girls who keep the diaries; the bad girls never have the time." Tallulah Bankhead

"To be loved is fortunate, but to be hated is to achieve distinction." Minna Thomas Antrim

"The freedom to speak is the freedom to lie."

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." Oscar Wilde

"Intelligence is the ability to change one's mind."

We may be going to a kid's birthday party today. Still haven't heard from anyone about a time. Its a bit of a drive so it would be nice to know. It's almost 4:30, getting kind of late. I don't know why the ex doesn't phone and find out. He isn't keen on going but its a place to get out and have free conversation and food. Birthday cake too. Besides, each time I have seen this kid at a party she has managed to dive into the cake, pretty funny. She is only 2. It's the ex husband's family so it isn't likely I will see any of them again after I move.

I used to have dozens of pen pals. That was a long time ago. These days I can't keep up with anyone's life, barely even my own.

Today I'm looking over the pen pal letters. I've kept them all in a bag. Most are from the 80's. I tried to get postcards from my pen pals so I could see how things looked where they were. Some would send coins too, just local currency. It cost more for the stamps to send them than the coins were worth.

As I'm going through the letters I've been pulling the stamps off all the envelopes. I have never been a stamp collector. My Dad has a stamp collection that's been in limbo for at least 30 years. But someday I might find someone to donate all these stamps too. I doubt any are really valuable but someone might as well have them. It seems a shame to just toss them all out. I am keeping all my postcards and coins though. I don't have a good place to put them and now that I'm packing its all just one more job and one more box. But, I'm not ready to toss them this move at least.

I considered starting pen paling again a few months ago. But even the couple I found interesting I never wrote back to more than once. I have plenty of nice stationery left over from the last bout of letter writing. I just don't have anything settled right now and I do need to get some kind of focus back, a routine would probably be a good thing too.

It sounds like my Mom will drive down on Monday. I hope so. Things are not bad here but not good either. I'm definitely ready to leave and work on whatever comes next. I'm really looking forward to seeing Zack, my nephew.

Anyway, this is enough blabbling for now. I was looking at college courses online but they are too far away, too expensive or too many hours (months, years). Maybe I will find something yet. All I really want is some clue about CGI, Perl and CSS.

"If my doctor told me I had only six months to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster." Isaac Asimov

I'm having a coffee problem today. This morning Todd drank all the milk and finished the last of my coffee cream. So, when I made coffee this morning there was a lovely pot of steaming coffee but no milk to put into it. I just can't drink it black. So, there is a whole lovely pot of coffee now cold on the kitchen counter. I managed to gag down some oatmeal without milk but it was like eating rubber. One good thing in the coffee situation was that new Starbucks double shot which Todd brought home from Pepsi last night. I had forgotten about it in the fridge so I had that for coffee this morning. Its ok, I still would have liked a hot coffee to sit beside me while I work and be stone cold by the time I'm way finished it. Some day I will get smarter about the coffee idea and use a smaller cup. I don't really like stone cold coffee.

Found in a blog:

We work in the dark We do what we can We give what we have Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task The rest is the madness of art.

-- Henry James

The latest news on the move is that I might be there by July. It's frustrating to rely on someone else. They keep changing plans, each time I think I will be home in Ontario everything changes. At least there is really nothing keeping me in the US now. I don't see how they could pull any more paperwork on us. The immigration stuff is past us now that we aren't staying together and I have no desire to stay in the US.

So, its a wait and see and try to procrastinate less on the whole packing thing. Isn't it amazing how much stuff you have when you need to pack it all up and move it?

I'd like to find a new template for the blog. One that underlines the links. I may just see if I can find out where in the coding that is and what I need to change. If I knew I would be here in Illinois till the end of the week or next week I would order a book through Amazon and get it sent here. But, I can do that when I'm in Ontario. I just need to be patient.

Taking a course would be great too. I still haven't looked to see what is in my area there. Or at least the area I will be in if I spend time with my parents. I just hope I don't stay there too long. It's too easy to settle in and stop really trying to do more on my own. Not that I'm a wimp, I just get tired of the fight when I never seem to end up winning.

Well, there was an earthquake in this area today. I actually felt some of it. Kind of interesting to have seen and heard it. Todd and I were joking that all I need now is the tornado to fulfill my Yankee experience. I would like to see one, real. But I don't want to be too close. The earthquake was quite far away but I still felt some of it. At the time I thought, the landlord was on the roof stomping around. It was strange though cause when it started I thought someone was in the room with me and it started on one side of the building. I could hear the building move I guess. But I also saw things shaking inside the apartment. No damage. Things weren't in danger of falling off shelves or anything that dramatic.

An Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days and warm your heart and home, May good and faithful friends be yours wherever you may roam, May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures, May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours.