Earthquake & Tsunami in Japan - March 11, 2011

Right off the bat I'm gonna say that I'm not an eloquent writer so I probably won't capture the severity of this catastrophe in Japan that happened 2 days ago so in lieu I'm posting a couple links that express what cannot be said.  My main reason for writing this entry today is for future readers, years to come, they may also come to know about this event.


Below is a link to a blog written by a Canadian who, luckily, didn't live near the worst parts of Japan but he still felt the earthquake.  He describes the experience:
http://www.gaijin-gunpla.com/tohoku-kanto-major-earthquake/


The BBC has extensive coverage of the situation in Japan.  There are numerous videos posted by newsmen and amateurs.  Apparently there are always people walking around with video cameras of some sort and it's evident by watching the videos that a news crew wouldn't be able to get to.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698


The Japan crisis has been quoted as "the worst since WWII".  Now that's bad.  We've all seen the pictures in textbooks and on the net of the devastation in Japan during and after WWII.


Here are some before and after pictures taken by satellite which are very good illustrations of the aftermath of the tsunami.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12726589


But did you hear the one good news story yet?  A 60 year old man who had returned back to his house after the earthquake to retrieve some items was swept away by the tsunami but he was able to get atop the roof of his house, which had swept 15 km (9 miles) out to sea.  He was noticed and rescued.  Mild weather and relatively calm seas had helped him stay adrift for 48 hours...his wife is still missing.

I hope these links remain active for a long time.

Cake Beauty & A History Lesson

http://www.cakebeauty.com/home.asp

For my niece's 3rd birthday (Mar 17) I found her some Strawberry Shortcake decadent bath and shower suds.  She's into Strawberry Shortcake right now, so why not?  It is awesome smelling....exactly like the dessert.  

Remember when you were a young girl and played with Strawberry Shortcake, Lemon Meringue, Blueberry Muffin, Huckleberry Pie, etc....

I just did a google/wikipedia search on the names of the characters and I didn't know how many there really were until now.  There are A LOT of characters that were developed in the early 1980's.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Strawberry_Shortcake_characters#) This link has the history and character description of every Strawberry Shortcake character.

Strawberry Shortcake                Huckleberry Pie                   Plum Puddin'

Blueberry Muffin                         Apple Dumplin'                     Orange Blossom

Raspberry Tart                           Lemon Meringue                  T.N. Honey     

Apricot                                        Butter Cookie                       Lime Chiffon

Cherry Cuddler                          Angel Cake                          Almond Tea

Café Olé                                    Crepe Suzette                      Mint Tulip

Lem and Ada                             Peach Blush                         Baby Needs-A-Name

Banana Twirl                             Mr. Sun                                  Lucky Bug

Escargot                                    Flitter-Bit                                Tamale

Horseradish                               Coco Nutwork                       Berry Busy Bug

Philbert Wormly III                     Maple Stirrup                        Raisin Cane

The Peculiar Purple Pieman      Sour Grapes                        

The Berry Princess and The Berrykins

There were also animals and fillies (horses) that came out later on.

I don't think I ever had a character taller than 1 inch....I'm sure I had the plastic miniatures that smelled just as yummy as the dolls with the brushable hair.

In late 2008, American Greetings relaunched the series with redesigned characters and changed personalities.  Now why would the personalities be changed?  I haven't looked into what the change was that was made but are these characters more 'politically correct'?  What would that look like anyways?  Just a speculation.

Second Major Snow Fall this Year

Around 11 am this morning, I shoveled about 45 cm (18 in) of soft powdery snow from the driveway.  Both sides of the driveway were already piled high with snow from a previous big dump in January.  So, where does the next dump of snow get tossed?  Well right on top of the first dump....made for a good arm/shoulder workout, tossing the snow high to the left and to the right.  (The blisters on my hands proved it.  Mental note:  take rings off fingers first.)

Our neighbour, Jack, from across the street came over and offered to snowblow for me when the wind died down otherwise snow would be EVERYWHERE!!  And that's kinda counter-productive.  I finished shoveling and as of now, 12:28pm, he hasn't snowblowed yet cause he's gotta do his driveway first but I just asked him to try and widen ours.  

Mom went to church this am and cause I have a nasty head cold I didn't venture out but I did shovel snow, now was that smart of me?  Yes and no....made feel worse but at least we can get out of the driveway a lot easier!  And mom doesn't have to hurt her back shoveling.  So I guess in the long run, it was a good idea. (Oh....and I burned a few calories too.)

Hodgepodge Update

My nephew, Corbinigan or Little Man...when he's in a good mood, he's great!  Loves to laugh, dance, cuddle and talk gibberish.  These pics were taken the same day as the video I posted recently.

My parent's house is for sale, been on the market for about 3 weeks now.  Had an open house last Sunday, then lowered the price $5000.00, now have had one walk through with them visiting again this Monday.  That's a good sign. We checked out house today, a 4 level split and it didn't flow very well at all.....kinda like the family outgrew it but had to make do.  On to the next one....heading to an Open House on Sunday afternoon....looks a like a nice one.        

I got a couple books in the mail via amazon.ca a couple days ago; "The Year of Living Biblically - One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible" and "The Know-It-All - One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World", both written by A.J. Jacobs.  These books, true accounts, are supposed to be quite humourous and I love humour!  Here's the link to the books he's written: http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=a.j.+jacobs&x=0&y=0 

I haven't done much of any scrapbooking in about a month or more because of the Pharmacology online course I'm taking which has begun to take up more of my time in the evenings and wknds.  I think I'm half way done my research paper I'm doing on Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease.  I'm so very thankful I don't have either of those because they are both very horrible in many ways.  I feel for the people who do but they say after about a year, after the surgery (a couple diff ones) they can feel like their life is back to normal.  In my eyes, that would take a lot of change because of the results after the surgeries.  Anyhoo, still have about 1000 more words to write and it's due on March 14.

Till next time.....

Full-Time at Last

About 2 weeks ago, I found out I got a full time job at the Pharmacy I'm already working at.  The position I ended up getting was previously held by a lady named Maria who decided to leave pharmacy and work in a different department in the hospital. 

I applied for it and because I had the most senority of the people that applied, I got it.  Sooooo, that means I'm a Pharmacy Assistant 2A, with a catch.  The classification of 2a signifies that I have specific training in mixing CIVA products, TPNs and chemo.  Well I don't have that training yet.  It will come in the near future and it will involve 4 straight weeks of it.  (And I hear they are a lonnnnnnng 4 wks).  The position I just had was a Pharmacy Assistant 1A; so by upgrading I get a $1.05/hr more, so I'm now up to $22.95/hr.  Now I'm working Mon-Fri, 0700-1518, in a 12 wk rotation.  Two of the weeks require me to work 2 wknds....not so shabby compared to my previous position of working EVERY wknd.

I started on Feb 7 some project work that required a couple volunteers, so I volunteered for something different to do.  I'm working along side with the Regional Director of Pharmacy, her admin assistant, and the Pharmacy Operations Manager.  The projects are mainly regional and require A LOT of computer work and reading.  It is mentally tiring and I am mentally tired by the end of my work day.  The 4th floor is where the admin offices are and the nickname that goes with admin offices is "sweater girls" or something along those lines.  For kicks I wore a sweater a couple fridays ago and this past Thurs was the National Sweater Day so I wore one then too.  The bunch of gals I work with and hang out with at work are hilarious and it's fun (for me) to make them laugh by being a good sport and wearing a sweater cause I'm now a 'sweater girl'.  Unfortunately I couldn't sport the argyle print as it was too big. 

These same people also have the love of great food such as the Olive Garden.  We have found some recipes online on the actual Olive Garden website.  I've made 3 of the recipes so far.  Two of them were awesome!!  http://www.olivegarden.com/recipes/recipe_search/

The first one I made was Chicken Crostina.  If you attempt to make it, give yourself an easy 2 hrs to prepare and cook.  There's no walking away from the stove during the cooking of this one.  The second one I made was Chicken Milanese.  The sauces both have white wine in them, I used cooking white wine and the flavour is quite prevalent in them both.   The third one I made wasn't listed on the OG site so I did a search and found Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara.  It was good except I'm not a fan of strong cheeses and I didn't know Romano would be like that.  Other than that, yummy as well.

Back to the gals I work, well I thought of, one day, we will be called Olive Sisters.  I'm Molive, Colleen is Colive, Tara is Tolive and Rhonda is Rolive.   We all get a kick outta those nicknames.  (pound it!)

Well that's all for tonight.

 

p.s.  I hate the formatting of this site....hard to seperate paragraphs.

Hangin' with My Nephew 2/19/11

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