Ellen Page and e-books

A quiet foggy afternoon off here as the animals nap, and I putter. Ahhhh! Instead of heading in to work a LN tonight as previously scheduled I received a call from a co-worker last evening asking me to switch with her for Thursday as she is Ellen Page's (yes THAT Ellen Page of movie fame) aunt and had been invited to her latest movie premiere in the city. One LN is the same as another to someone who doesn't have a movie star in her family so that was an easy trade for me and she was most pleased to be able to attend the gala. The only stipulations were that I advised she had to tell Ellen the only way she had gotten there was that her greatest fan had switched a shift with her.

I returned home from my second LD yesterday to find that the visiting daughter # 1 had cleaned the house, done the laundry, made (and cleaned up) supper for her father and when I got home with the car she headed out to pick up a few groceries for me. Now THAT is how you have a day off - when all that list is done first! When she heads back out west at the end of the month my days off will be more domestic and less crafty for sure. We will look forward to our visit in the fall which will include a Beach Boys concert in Red Deer on October 1st. We have quite a 'concerts attended' list to our names now.

I had a call from daughter # 2 who has been offered a maternity leave from September to May at a school she did one of her practice teaching placements and some substituting in. She will be teaching P/1 in French Immersion at Burton Ettinger Elementary which is only a short walk from her place. Here's the link to check it out:

http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/bees/

The school has a diverse student population and she admits to being excited a bit nervous which is exactly how a new teacher should describe herself. The government bursary she was awarded will be paid back for a mat leave so this is a great start as they build up a house downpayment nest egg. I told her to let me (and the coworkers) know what we will need to save for all those classroom projects she will plan.

The only son is making plans to go out swordfishing tomorrow and he acts as if it is going deer hunting, not sure if it's the harpoon aspect which leads to the adrenaline rush or just the newness of the adventure. The plans include nine days of fuel so it's nine days or 20 swordfish - whichever come first. The original departure was to be today but there must be a bit of weather predicted.

Things have finally slowed down here this week enough for me to fully realize that Stanley actually isn't here. The other cats don't really seem to notice and as the shore captain says "they're just cats, they don't remember stuff" which is a great theory except for the way they sit in a certain spot and look at the cupboard where the treats are at regular time. Daughter # 3 reports that .....Stanley's doing alright...scared of people and noises but he always was a big baby. Him and Winston have a love-hate relationship..some times they bathe each other and sometimes they pull tuffs of hair off each other...I think in time they may become besties. Hopefully Gary is doing alright by himself (because I know Klyde is no fun at all). Although this is not completely accurate as Klyde has begun purring and allowing himself to be petted, something he hasn't done since he was a kitten - maybe he has feline dementia and has forgotten to be mean.

The shore captain continues to go flat out and is unloading boats, packing and shipping or splitting and salting fish, attempting to ship some of the lobsters in his tankhouse, getting one of the vessels through steamship inspection and hopefully underway fishing shortly - when I caught him on the cell phone today he was taking the captain up to the slip to bring the boat back. So keeping his usual pace.

Work has been fairly busy for me and I am being a preceptor for a reentry nurse which is a double edged sword. Nice to have the extra pair of hands but have to answer some questions, examine my practice and keep my eyes open for developing problems. She is doing really well as she was always a good nurse but some of the changes do defy explanation so I find myself saying "it just is, I'm not going to defend the policy" as I have left that arena behind. Speaking of my previous life - the husband of a former workteammate passed away suddenly and the memorial service was being held today. Makes you stop to evaluate your priorities and ensure they are in line with where you're going.

On a lighter note, we are (of course) continuing to enjoy the wireless internet in this area and I'm sure that the locals have bloodshot eyes just like 25 yrs ago when you could rent a VHS player and tapes for the weekend and watch them all in succession. We are now able to borrow (download) e-books from our local library system. I am reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (an excellent read and highly recommended) which is about the channel island just after WWII, at present. I have it for a period of 21 days and am going to monitor what happens to it after that - does it in Mission Impossible style self destruct after a certain time? It is nice to not always have to purchase (even if it is cheaper) the reading material. The only downside being that I have to order another bookreader for myself as I haven't been able to get the original one away from the shore captain's hands except when he starts to snore.