It's Caturday!!!!

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Oh you know it's totally true!

Yes, I am a single women, and yes, I have cats. Plural. Not like ten, only two, but still, multiple felines.

This is Dante. He's my handsome lad.

He likes to be upside down.

Dante will be five years old in a couple months. I've had him since I moved here. He's kind of a grouch, but will be a cuddly kitty if he feels like it.

He was the first friend I had here. Yes, I had my sister, and her friends, but they were HER friends. Dante was mine.

Baby Dante is a sweater. Awwwwwww!

Whenever I was feeling sad, he'd come over and let me pet him. That always made me feel better. At least something in this world loved me and was happy to see me when I came home, even if it was just the fact that I provided food and water and changed the litter box.

He's not perfect. He yowls quite a lot and chews on plastic bags, but he will not poop anywhere but the litter box.

Dante also puked in my shoe yesterday. And today he knocked a glass of water all over my naked Eric/Sookie/Bill cover of Rolling Stone.

But I still love him.

This is Stormy.

She's cute and she knows it.

I got her just over a year ago from the SPCA after I saw a photo of her. Love at first sight. Look how pretty she is! Such a pretty baby!

I figured Dante could use a friend, since he seemed pretty lonely when I wasn't home.

After a whole year, Stormy still like to claw my lovely couch, even though she has a whole chair to claw and knows she'll get sprayed with the water bottle if she does it. She runs at the sight of that thing.

She's also very adventurous. She likes to try and sneak out the door of my apartment every time I leave. She's been successful a number of times, but usually just gets tossed back in after I catch her. There have been two occasions where I didn't see her get out and just left anyways. Once I came home and she was sitting at the top of the stairs, waiting. The other time I figured I'd go check the mail before going upstairs, opened the door to the downstairs hallway, and there she was. Wandering all over thebuilding, apparently.

I miss the days where all she wanted to do was sleep.

Then there was the time she actually escaped. Off the balcony and into the great outdoors. I was bawling for about three hours and searching the neighbourhood to try and find her. It wasn't until I decided to make one last attempt to find her around midnight that Stormy apparently had enough of her adventure and was waiting for me at the outside door.

Little bitch nearly gave me a heart attack.

But she's MY little bitch. And I love her too.

So now you know about my cats. And probably still think I'm the Crazy Cat Lady.

Kitties and Cuddles,

Ginger.

WLW: Roadblocks continued...

I hate you, Scale.

No, I really do. You're such a bastard.

See, Scale and I are having a bit of a disagreement. I weigh myself periodically throughout the week, just to see how I'm doing. Wednesday's weigh in is just the one I share with people reading this.

And it looked like, from those little weigh ins, that I was back on track. Really...

.....

Fuck you, Scale.

Dear Scale: I hate your face. Please, go die in a fire. Love, Ginger.

Wow, that's a nice happy way to start a post, huh? How about something not quite so raged filled?

So, remember how I said last week that I was gonna be super good and not use my free weekend and whatnot?

Yeah, I typed that completely forgetting that a lady at work was having her retirement dinner on Friday.

Food and booze on the boss's dime? Hells yes!

Booze-wise, I stuck to my gin and tonics... granted I had like six of them or something, I lost count of how many that cranky waitress brought me.

Food-wise, I did alright. I avoided appies altogether, not just because I shouldn't be eating that shit, but also because the appies at that particular establishment make me sick after eating them. It's not a pretty sight.

Dinner was chicken souvlaki, served with salad, green and yellow beans, chicken on a stick, rice and pita bread with tzatziki. I only had a few bites of rice, left most of it on the plate. I did eat all the little pita triangles, mostly to soak up the alcohol. Probably not my best choice, but considering some of the shit on the menu at that place, it was probably for the best.

Oh, and then, because it was not only a retirement party, but also a birthday party, we had to have cake.

Had I not been three sheets to the wind (I'm a very cheap drunk), I would have just said no and had them pass the cake along. As it were, I had a few bites of cake before getting a sharp stabbing pain in my head, so I passed on eating it all. Yay for me, 'cause anyone who knows me knows how much I love cake.

So that was last Friday. I was good the whole rest of the weekend and the start of the week.... except for last night at roller derby Rules Night. I had a few tortilla chips and other snackies. I'm an awful human being.

Beyond that, good as gold!

Ugh.

Okay, something else positive....Ummmmmm...

Oh! A couple of tops I ordered online arrived on Monday. Still being in the "I'm so fat" mindset, and despite the actual measurements of said tops were right on the webpage, I still ordered them in XXL. Also because I find some tops fit smaller than advertised.

I was so stoked when they arrived, because they're eight shades of awesome, but less than stoked when I tried them on. One isn't so bad, it's actually still a nice fit, just maybe a squidge too big. But I can live with that.

The other one... Oh, that one was like wearing a potato sack. And potato sacks aren't sexy. After a lot of humming and hawing, I sent back to be exchanged for a smaller size. Hopefully it makes it to New Jersey before Sept. 15, otherwise I don't get to exchange it. Maybe it's time I actually took my measurements so I don't have to keep doing this.

I also got a bitchin' necklace that, like the tops, also turned out to be bigger than I expected.

Skate bling, fuck yeah!

So yay that I'm not a XXL anymore, but boo that I had to send the top back – I really wanted to wear it this week.

So yeah, not the best week, but it wasn't as bad as last week. This weekend is a free one, though, which is a good thing, because there's a lot of stuff going on this weekend that won't allow me to access good food. I don't really want to binge on anything though.

So yeah, onwards to weigh in results.

Last week I posted a gain, with my weight sitting at 223.6 lbs

My current weight is....

*Beep....beep.....beep*

223.6 lbs.

I suppose no change is better than another gain, but I'm still pissed off. Yesterday I was down – clearly tortilla and snackies were not a good idea last night.

Sigh. Back at it, hopefully with a loss next week.

Beeps and Bleeps,

~Ginger.

Politicking

I don't get political very often, but sometimes I just feel the need to speak my mind. And quite frankly, there's no time like the present.

Two major events occurred last week that have rocked the political landscape of Canada: The death of Opposition Leader Jack Layton on Monday, and now the results of the B.C. HST referendum on Friday.

Being a member of the "liberal media," I'm actually not supposed to have a real opinion on anything – I'm supposed to be objective, open-minded and non-partisan. So that's what I'm going to try and do here. We'll see how long that lasts.

Let's go chronologically, shall we? Starting with Mr. Layton.

This was a tragedy. Pure and simple. Almost like God or Allah or the Flying Spaghetti Monster was mocking him by giving him the biggest gain in his political career and then saying "Ha ha! Just kidding! Have some more cancer!" Totally a douche-y thing to do, FSM.

I wasn't Layton's biggest fan in previous elections. To me, he just didn't seem willing to step up and take a stand and say what he would actually do for this country if elected. Then, in this past election, it was like someone turned on a light switch in the man's brain – he became a politician that actually seemed to give a damn about the Canadian people. Not just attacking other parties and saying what his spin doctors told him to say. I don't know what it was, maybe the health scare of his first bout with cancer – sometimes looking down the barrel of one's own mortality can give them a kick in the pants – but whatever it was, he finally managed to oust the Liberals as the official Opposition. Who the fuck saw that coming?

I actually cheered a little for the mustachioed man, that had to be a dream come true for the NDP, and honestly it was nice to see this country's voters do something different for once.

I mean, this man actually accomplished something neither the Conservatives or Liberals could do: he practically kicked the Bloc out of Quebec and the House of Commons! I never thought I would live to see that happen, and I'm not that old.

Then, last month, we get word that he would be stepping down as NDP leader, as he was facing a second battle with cancer.

The photos I found of him on the newswire were disturbing – you could practically see his skull through his skin, he looked so emaciated. He was a very sick man, that was very obvious. But people come back from this kind of thing, especially in this day and age of medical technology.

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be for Mr. Layton. Cancer is tragic, whether it's a politician or a gas jockey. Doesn't matter your station in life, it's still tragic.

Since news of his passing got out to the general public, there have been constant outpourings of praise, accolades and near hero worship. It's funny how people's accomplishments are exalted after they die. I'm not saying he wasn't a good person, but was he the saint that people are saying? Probably not. Although this might get Stephen Harper wondering just what people would say about him if he were to suddenly pass. I know it'd be first thing on my mind.

I've also seen a bunch of signs and whatnot calling Layton "The best Prime Minister we never had." Really, Canada? Then why did you vote in a Conservative majority? Yes, you did vote in the NDP as the opposition, but realistically? I don't think Layton would have made it to Prime Minister. Now that the NDP are in their current position, if they can maintain that position for the next few elections, then, perhaps, we'll see orange banners flying on election night in the future. I'm skeptical that an NDP majority will happen in the next decade, and I like to think Layton would have wanted to retire by the time he was in his 70s.

But, hey! That's just me.

However you feel about it, Layton's passing was a pretty major blow to Canadian politics, but here's hoping his party will carry on and thrive. 'Cause quite frankly, it's about damn time.

And then there was a little lesson in democracy: The B.C. public voting to abolish the HST.

Wow. That's all I could really say.

Okay, starting way back two years ago. The B.C. Liberals said during the 2009 election that they would not be bringing a harmonized sales tax to this province. What did they do almost immediately after being elected? They said they're abolishing the PST/GST system and doing the HST.

That was their first mistake. And they knew it was a mistake. Hell, Gordon Campbell even told me and several other media outlets during a visit up here that how the Liberals rolled it out was a mistake. This was maybe a month before he resigned as premier.

Second mistake, I think, was how they explained it. They way it was essentially explained to me was that a business would pay X amount in HST, and the business would be reimbursed back to them. Or something like that. Now, if the business is going to just get that money back, why the hell are they paying it in the first place? Eliminate the middle man and just let the business keep their damn money.

Families, seniors and low-income people were also going to get some one-shot reimbursement cheque. Not me though, apparently I make too much money for that shit now. I'm thinking of framing the letter from the government telling me so, just to show how much of an adult I am.

So anyways, the HST is rolled out, and former premier Bill Vander Zalm decides to launch this massive campaign to have the HST revoked or recalled or whatever. We have a photo in our archives of when Vander Zalm was up here where it looks like he was doing the claw part of the Thriller dance. It's fucking awesome.

The Fight HST campaign clogged my inbox with press releases, and launched a petition that got enough signatures for a referendum. They also tried a recall campaign that failed miserably, since they didn't seem to realize just how difficult it is to recall an MLA. And it is. Very difficult.

This riding was overwhelmingly against the HST, having one of the highest percentages in the province for signatures on the petition. Which is totally retarded since we have the lowest voter turnout in the entire province. Go figure.

But now, after several months of campaigning on both sides, the results were finally in and people said "fuck you, elected leaders!" and have voted to abolish the tax and revert back to the PST/GST system.

While I never agreed with how the government went about rolling out the HST, I could see both sides of the HST debate. When Christy Clark took over as premier, she had herself quite the little shitstorm to deal with, but she tried to appease the populace by lowering the HST to 10% by 2014. I give her an A for effort, she really did try to appeal to the voters on this.

What I don't think people seem to understand is B.C. signed a contract with the Feds to bring in the HST. Ottawa gave the B.C. government something to the tune of $1.6 billion to implement the new tax. Well, if B.C. isn't going to do the new tax, then they can't really keep that $1.6 billion, can they? B.C. has to pay that back. All of it.

Where do you suppose that money is going to come from?

I could be completely wrong in this, but it seems to me that we've now added $1.6 billion to the provincial debt. Which, to me, does not bode well for a lot of arts, sports, culture, heritage, family and other programs that Clark has worked to bring back after Campbell cut everything.

Maybe I'm wrong in this. Maybe they'll just tax the shit out of the people and businesses, which would really be fitting, since they're the ones that voted out the HST.

I really did think people were just going to suck it up and move on with their lives after the HST came on board. Kind of like with the Carbon Tax. We just absorbed it because we really didn't have much choice up here. Plus, no one really seemed to feel like launching a massive campaign against it.

But what's done is done. We've made our bed, B.C. and now we have to fuck in it.

Wow, that was a long post. If you made it this far, congrats! You have even less of a life than I do! Haha!

Apparently I can write about something other than the fat on my ass. Who knew?

Sympathies and condolences,

Ginger.

WLW: Roadblocks

Oh, this was not a good week.

I was very, very bad on the weekend. It was not a free, eat-whatever-I-want weekend, and I still pretty much ate whatever I wanted. And what I wanted was not good.

I ate a whole bag ofSour Cream and Onion Lay's. I ate cookies. I ate a bunch of delicious – but so not on my eating plan – food leftover from a little party my sister had the night before, which included seven layer dip and chips, bread and spinach dip, and yogurt covered raisins.

I loved every bite. I admit that.

But falling so far off the wagon, as it were, leaves me feeling very disappointed in myself. Like when Mom used to give me the "I'm very disappointed in you" talk after seeing my report cards in high school kind of disappointed.

I need a hug.

I want to be thinner. I want to he healthier. So why am I sabotaging myself? I have always had a semi-unconscious fear of success, which is what usually led to those I'm Disappointed In You talks. This has led to several "what the fuck are you so afraid of, you dumb bitch!?" internal discussions.

Talking to yourself is something same people do, right?

Sigh. Anyway....

It's like food is mocking me or something.

Take my lunch today, for example. I started off with a lovely salad of mixed greens, strawberries and feta cheese, which has become my favourite salad ever in life.

See? So lovely.

I also had a cream of chicken Soup To Go, and went to the store for some deli chicken, just because I knew I was going to be starving if I didn't have just a little bit more than soup and salad.

The salad was fine, maybe a touch heavy on the dressing, but just fine beyond that. However, my soup decided to tip over in the microwave and spill its tasty contents all over the place. The chicken slices I got were gross. I should know better by now – stick with the cajun chicken, 'cause that hot and spicy kind was crap.

And to top it off, the Pepsi Max I bought just because I wanted one, was completely flat when I opened it.

And then, I got a stomach ache.

Clearly, food hates me and is punishing me.

So fine! You win, food! I'll not stray from the path... at least until I'm allowed... which WON'T be this coming weekend as I fucked up this last weekend.

So yeah, the result of this these follies?

Last week I was at 222.4 lbs

This week the magic number is...

*beep....beep....beep*

223.6 lbs

I gained, and therefore my weight loss total is now only 11.9 lbs.

My resolution for this week is to stop fucking around, and stop eating shit food.

We'll just wait and see how things go.

Sighs and smiles

~Ginger.

Beads!

One of my favourite activities that I only get to do once a year is make glass beads.

It started last summer when I went home for a visit. Mom had taken a glass bead-making class at the behest of a friend of hers, and then had me go take it as well.

I quickly discovered that I love playing with red hot molten glass. Fire is fun.

Glass beads start life as rods of pretty coloured glass... that I melt with fire.

It's actually a very meditative process, you have to pay such close attention to the torch and the glass that you can't let your mind wander too much.

It's an expensive hobby, though– the cost of glass and torch table rental adds up when you do it for 4 days.

The process involves slowly heating the glass rods, slowly being the operative word as if you just stick the rod in the flame, the glass blows up.

And trust me, it really fucking hurts when one of those hot shards of glass land on your skin... I should know, I had a piece land on my chest last on my first day at the table. Only I didn't realize that it didn't just bounce off and left it there, burning my skin for about 30 seconds longer than it should have. Ouch.

Glass is such an interesting medium, it's actually pretty amazing what you can do with it. At Bavin Glassworks where I do all this bead making, the peeps that work there can make some fantastic stuff. The beads can be just about any size, with raised swirls and dots, and pretty much any shape. One lady there can do all kinds of animals, like penguins and pigs.

Me, I like making beads that look like marbles. I like ones that have different colours at different depths. And they're so cool because you don't actually know what they'll look like until you go pick them upthe next day.

Sometimes the top layer colours completely wipe out the the bottom layer colours, but it still looks pretty cool.

Glass on fire. Burn, baby, burn.

This year I tried to make some pendants that could just stand on their own as necklaces, rather that trying to make as many beads as possible the same shape and size for bracelets.

Some worked out better than others, but they're all still pretty cool.

BEADS!!!!

I would really love to do this here, it'd be a nice, warm winter activity. However, I don't think my property manager would be too happy with me burning oxygen and propane in my apartment... probably burn the whole building down.

Oh well.

Fire and Glass,

Ginger

WLW Post Vaycay:

Okay, so I admit I slacked off a bit when it came to my eating during my vaycay.

While at mom's place I was pretty good, but did incorporate one serving of complex carbs per day and more fruit into my daly meals.

I've missed fruit... so verymuch. I don't know if it was just a really good batch, or if I'd actually forgotten how they taste, but goddamn, I love strawberries! Bananas too.

I love you, Strawberries.... stupid little seeds and all.

I didn't have much of an issue with the carbs I did have, at mom's house, anyway. The parents make random trips to the U.S. to hit up the Costco's that have "skinny bread", as well as turkey sausages and black bean burgers that, surprisingly, don't taste like shit.

As a treat for me, who's never had the chance to go on a little roadtrip to Montana, the parents and I ventured down for two days to do some shopping. Mom had made me a deal back in June that if I managed to lose 20 pounds by the time I went home, she'd buy me a bunch of new clothes when we went to the States.

Well, that didn't happen, but she did by me one of the shirts I liked, so I guess that's pretty close.

Anyhoo, food was not my friend south of the border (wow, that could be taken in a variety of ways, couldn't it?). When we got there we were starving, so we headed to this restaurant that my parents really liked. After waiting far too long for drinks, orders taken, a moron for a waitress, we didn't really care that the food was only lukewarm and we didn't get everything we asked for, we just ate.

Attempting to try something different, rather than ordering a burger I picked lobster linguine. It tasted fine, I thought.

About an hour and a half later, I wasn't thinking that anymore. My stomach was burning and my throat felt like it was wide open enough to swallow a watermelon completely whole. In other words, I felt like vomiting. And feeling like that, stuck in a hotel room with the little trashcan and attempting to distract myself by watching South Park made for a very unhappy Ginger.

Oddly enough, I didn't puke, and the feeling went away after a couple hours. Mom wonders if I didn't have a bad reaction to the carbs in the pasta, or if it was the lobster. I did eat some fries and a dinner roll as well that night, so part of me wants to lean towards the former.

That night left me feeling pretty wrecked the next day, so all I managed to eat was some yogourt in the morning. Still didn't have much of an appetite by lunch, which sucked because lunch was amazeballs!

There is nothing I want more in this area than for someone to open an Mongolian Grill, for serious. The one bowl I did managed to eat (the parents had four, each!) was absolutely delicious!

Meat, noodles, veggies and sauce... I could get used to that.

Another thing that astounded me when I was there was everything they have that's not available in Canada.

Mountain Dew in every colour of the rainbow, all those crappy cereals that I loved but only got when they were on sale for like 90% off, Keebler cookies, everything hostess ever made that I used to be able to see in a 7-Eleven... and what I really consider the crowning glory... cherry flavoured Coke Zero.

Seriously, why the FUCK isn't this available in Canada?!!?

It's probably for the best that all the tasty and delicious and totally bad for you stuff is across the boarder. And far away from me.

So anyways, on with the show.

Last update, I was sitting at 225.5 lbs, as far as I could see on mom's crappy scale.

This week's weight is...

*beep, beep, beep....*

222.4 lbs.

I'm down 13.1 lbs in eight weeks. I can deinitely live with that.

I'm gonna stick with the regular two pound goal for next week... since I'm incorporating fruit and whatnot back into my eating, I don't really know if the weight will come off the same way.

Cherry and Coke,

Ginger.

PCS: Zombies!!!

Oh lordy, I feel more like a zombie today than I did yesterday.

And yesterday, I looked like this:

I will eat your heart.... and brains

It was a day full of the undead with our Zombie Walk and zombie roller derby bout, Aurora Gory-alis.

This was the ECRDA's first ever game as a real live team. We had only played in mixed bag rookie invitationals before this, so it was a pretty big deal for us. We put on our matching green zombie shirts, and went out on that track and played our hearts out.

We didn't win (we're number 2!!), but I think we all had a great time. the amalgamated Grande Prairie Cryptkeepers showed off the skills they picked up at RollerCon, and made for what I was told afterwards a very exciting and entertaining game to watch.

Zombie Roller Babes! (Okay, we didn't actually look this undead, but you get the idea.)

There weren't nearly as many people in the stands as there were the last two bouts, which makes me wonder if it didn't have something to do with the fact it was a Zombie bout.

See, there was a bit of controversy on a local news website where people were cutting down the concept of a Zombie Walk, which was held before the bout. One of the people commenting on the site was having a freakout over how scared and traumatized her kids would be.

Now, I personally don't see why it's such a big deal. Zombies aren't real, you can't actually raise the dead. It's about teaching your kids the difference between fantasy and reality. Yes, we were dressed to look like rotting corpses, but how is that any different than what some people dress up as on Halloween? True, Halloween dress-up is always done after dark – our Zombie Walk was done in broad daylight. But, honestly? I think it'd be way more terrifying to see a horde of "undead people" walking the streets in the dark. At least at 2 p.m., you can be pretty sure that it's just a bunch of people playing pretend.

But, on the other hand, I can see how small children could be scared by such things. I can recall having nightmares for years after seeing a made-for-TV movie during Sunday Night's Magical World of Disney, yes I said Disney, called Mr. Boogedy, as well as it's sequel, Bride of Boogedy.

Seriously, watch at about the 2:10 mark and tell me that face wouldn't have your five-year-old self shitting their pants.

But eventually, I got over it. At least until I had to watch The Exorcist at a birthday party when I was twelve. Didn't sleep for nearly a month after that shit.

It's actually pretty amazing that I'm not more fucked up than I already am.

But, again, it's still understanding the difference between fantasy and reality. Mr. Boogedy doesn't exist, and neither does the pea soup-vomiting, head-spinning, I-need-an-old-priest-and-a-young-priest Regan. Just like Vampires, Werewolves, Witches of the flying on a broomstick variety, and other such monsters aren't really real – but it's still fun to pretend they are. Which is why I watch shows like True Blood, The Walking Dead, and Being Human.

But, like people responded on the site, if you don't want your kids exposed to that sort of thing, don't take them to it. You probably know what your own kids are comfortable with (I would hope, anyway... you're supposed to be their parents!), and if you feel they aren't ready to take part in a Zombie Walk, then don't take them to it.

But don't be surprised if in a few years they're parading down the street with the rest of the living dead as an act of teenage rebellion.

Anyhoo.... yay for roller derby! And dressing up before it's Halloween! Yay!

Skates and Zombies,

Ginger.

WLW: Vaycay

Being on holidays while trying to follow my eating plan would be far more difficult if I didn't have the mother I have.

Like I said last week, going to mom's is a lot like going to a fat farm. Your meals are mostly vegetables, some protien and you only get carbs once a day. Like tonight, we're haivng black bean vegetarian burgers with what she calls "skinny bread" that she gets from the States. It's almost like little pitas or something.

Oh yeah, and at least twice a week, she and the old man eats vegetarian meals.

So you think I'd have doen awesome this week, right?

Well, I'm not entirely sure, 'cause Mom's only got one of those spinny-dial scales and I can't really read it, but by the looks of it, I've just managed to maintain this week

Which is fine. I am on vaycay, after all.

Plus, I smashed my knee pretty hard into concrete last week at derby practice, which had ruined pretty much all of my exercise plans up to this point. The knee is a lot better today, so after I go make glass beads for a few hours, I'll be taking a nice long walk around town... maybe even swing by the post office and collect the new knee pads that I ordered after the old ones failed to protect my knee from being smashed into the concrete!

Pieces of shit.... ah well. I did just find out I am for serious on the roster for our game next Saturday, which is total Yay! I'll have to wear the new knee pads around the house to get used to them beforehand.

Oh, and I have to share the awesome salad I had last night, I'm so making it when I get home. Mom and I went to one of the vacation resorts in the area for dinner last night and we had their Artisan Greens salad... it's mixed greens with strawberries, smoked hazelnuts and goat cheese, topped with a balsamic vinigerette. So fucking delicious!

And yes, you read that right. I ate strawberries. I'm actually eating fruit while I'm here, which could be the reason for my weight statying put, but I don't think so. Fruit is too good for you. Beside, mom and I split a cinnimon bun after dinner last night - that probably didn't help.

So, grand total weight loss this week is....

*Biggest Loser Beeps*

Zero!

But I didn't gain anything, so I win! Yay!

Beans and Burgers,
~Ginger