There is nothing like an old married woman talking about all the things she likes to do. http://space.rblords.com http://space.rblords.com/newpics/rmcey.jpg http://space.rblords.com/ 123 60 space.rblords.com I have created a livejournal blog <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/~melaniemaryjane/">here</a>... I think almost every day about posting an update ... Do you remember grades 7 to 12? ... I am here... to update and Ryan is here looking over my shoulder. What is new? ... In 2004... <br /><br /> - January: the probationary period for my new job ended, we did some renovations to the house.<br /> - February-March: Ryan decided he wanted to go back to university so we started saving...<br /> - April-May: We learned to play Ultimate<br /> - June-July: We played lots of Ultimate and some Slo-pitch<br /> - August: We took holidays to work at the Exhibition. Grandma Biddy passed away, Shelby and I sang together at her funeral, and Mom played the piano for us.<br /> - September: Ryan went back to school.<br /> - October: I put up the Christmas lights on Halloween<br /> - November: Ryan got a job at the Midtown Plaza parking lot as a parking attendant. My Aunt began to contest my Grandma's will with my father.<br /> - December: Ryan worked pretty much all through the holidays while I took a week off. We were at Mom and Dad's on Christmas Day and Ryan's parents for the New Year weekend.<br /><br /> Just last night we heard that Ryan's Grandma Cey passed away. In my life before Ryan I grew up with my immediate family, 2 aunts, 5 first cousins, 3 grandparents and a handful of 2nd cousins. My Grandpa Card passed away when I was 7, and Grandpa Irwin when I was 17. When Ryan and I started dating in September of 1998 Ryan had 4 living grandparents. Since then, 3 have passed away. His family is large - his mom and dad both have 9 brothers and sisters. I guess in large families there are more people that come and go. Still, sometimes I feel like I was handed a bag of jewels and someone has just started stealing them from me one by one. I find that the older I get the harder death is to cope with. I do not think it is because I have a fear of any kind, but instead that I feel like I know these people better, even the ones you do not see that often.<br /><br /> Forgive my tone tonight, but I am utterly depressed. I have been so for the last 2 days. When we got back from Ryan's mom and dad's on Monday night, Ryan had the flu. He spent some time popping in and out of bed to 'use the washroom' that night. I think I managed to get a total of 3 hours of sleep. Last night I thought for sure I would be so tired that I would just go to sleep right away. I did not. I ended up taking a gravol and I don't think that I got a very good rest. In any case there have been a few things on my mind. You can choose to read them or not to read them, I am only writing them for my own well being.<br /><br /> At work on Tuesday something came to light that I did in my work in December (bad). I of course looked at it and said, oh yeah, I knew I was doing that wrong but I did not go back to it and fix it. A particular co-worker is making this very hard for me. I do not know if it is the lack of sleep that has made it so hard, or that this problem is now CAUSING the lack of sleep. Today, a comment sent me into complete inner destruction. This is not me, I am normally strong. However, I do bleed. <br /><br /> My aunt is putting my Dad through hell. (He only has one sister, and it was their mom that passed away in August.) She will not settle with him on the terms of the will and the land agreement in my Grandma's estate. Grandma left the balance of the land that my Dad was purchasing from her to my aunt, and split the cash assets between them. (Yes, that means my aunt is getting more) She claims that Dad got her inheritance, and she wants more - where is the lost money? - is there not more money? what about that account? and so on and so forth. I fear that the pressure this is putting on my Dad is hurting his physical well being quite a bit. He talks about it all the time. He does not even want anything from the will - but the land is part of what he farms - so he needs her to settle on an agreement and not sell the land from underneath him. Since 1991 my Dad's Mom and Dad lived on the farm (in a seperate house) with my family until 1997 when Grandpa passed away. Grandma continued to live there until just a few weeks before she passed away. My Mom and Dad put their heart and soul into making her happy and my aunt always lived comfortably at least 2 hours away. I do not know why a person thinks they are entitled to something when someone dies. As I lay awake early on Tuesday morning I thought of composing a list of what it was like to grow up with my Grandma. What we gave to her... we what we did with her... and how we loved her. But I have come to realize that what my aunt seeks she can not have anymore. All the years we spent with Grandma, that is what she gave to us, that is all that we have to give to each other. My aunt can not release her guilt for the time of neglect or gain any monetary value of my Grandma's presence by living off what is left of her, but I think that is what she is trying to do. No one needs nor deserves anything. I have the best of my grandma in my heart. I want to keep my Dad for a while longer... if my aunt takes that away from me, I will have to pray many hours for her forgiveness. <br /><br /> Perhaps this is a side of me many of you do not know - but as I said - this is mostly for me... I think people should consider some things - and I am writing them to remind myself what they are. We can not take along what we accumulate in this lifetime to the next one. We should respect each other, give as much and take as little as possible. I thank God for all the friends and family He has shared with me, and I hope He does the same for you.<br /><br /> I just posted new pictures. Note that the date on these pictures is of course the date I posted them and not the date that I took them.<br /><br /> Ryan started working at the parkade at the Midtown Plaza about 2 weeks ago. He takes tickets and money from people when they leave. I think he has been scheduled for a few too many hours lately. This weekend he is working both days. I bought him a new backpack as an early Christmas gift and gave it to him yesterday. He was using one of the free ones he got from Budget but it was falling apart and didn't really hold all his stuff anyway.<br /><br /> I have been fairly busy at work the last couple of weeks working on a group project. My time at home is mostly used for cleaning, cooking, or watching more TV than I should. Fiona got me partially hooked on the OC - I think she just likes it more than I like Survivor so we watch it instead. On Sundays I watch Desperate Housewives. Brutal - I am becoming a true television consumer and it is driving me crazy.<br /><br /> The last couple of days have been really uncomfortable for me - my Osteo is kicking up really bad and my leg is spiking with pain. I decided this morning it is time to take some of my Bextra - so I will have to see how that goes. On as somewhat related note, we had our year end staff party on Friday night and I spent the last couple of hours wondering how bad it would look if I took off because the seat I had made my back hurt really bad. However, the mock horse racing thing they had set up was pretty cool so I managed to stick through it. We both won some gift certificate cash from the horse racing thing and Ryan also won a door prize gift certificate for the Station Place restaraunt.<br /><br /> Our plans for the holiday season are all but solid - mostly up in the air. We know that Ryan is going to be working all around Christmas day. I have thought of going to Mom and Dad's by myself but I don't really want to spend Christmas without him, and more importantly, I don't want him to be alone on Christmas Day. We will probably spend it here - nice fire, bacon and eggs, couple of gifts, lots of coffee :).<br /><br /> http://space.rblords.com Today's title is about the two things on my mind right now. Wed night we went to Metric at the Odeon. Much like the girl on CFCR Green Eggs and Ham this morning Ryan and I referred to this as The Metric Show. The other bands were Death From Above 1979 and Billy Talent. We stayed for DFA only because they came before Metric and left immediately after Metric because we had no interest in seeing Billy Talent. This show was sponsored by Players - there were cigarette stands and cigarette girls who walked around in blue uniforms wearing white mini skirts and knee high mucklucks. WTF? These girls can not offer you cigarettes so they dress them up all slutty and give them glowing cigarette trays to make you want to buy cigarettes. I did not submit to nor feel any complelling urge to buy cigarettes. Speaking of which it has been a year since I have had a cigarette. I had been social smoking (about 1 a month) since Ryan quit but it was not fair so I quit last year around this time. Oh yeah and at the show beer was $4. What a crock - maybe beer at bars is always that expensive - still, what a crock.<br /><br /> WebLogic - of course that is work related. I just fixed a bug - something to do with WebLogic and adding a mime type for css. Just be proud of me - that is all I ask of you.<br /><br /> Just like on Romper Room - I want to say hi to all my friends out there... to Wendy, and Tanis, and Amanda, and Doug, and Ellen, and Janine, and Jaime, and Fiona, and Beth, and Chad, and Janice, and Shawn, and Shaun, and Kristen, and Marty, and Sarah, and Sara, and Brent, and Leanne, and Courtney, and Kristy, and Colin, and Dale, and Chris, and Ryan, and Ryan, and Ryan, and Ryan... and anyone else I missed :) <br /><br /> <a href="http://www.ilovemetric.com/">Get Metric</a> http://space.rblords.com Here are some new pictures. http://space.rblords.com/myPics.html I have finally started reading a book. Well, it is really a collection of short stories, but it is still a book. The book is Harlan Ellison's <p style="display: inline; font-style: italic">Strange Wine</p>. I have only read the first short story - I have to say I found the introduction to the book the best part so far. I borrowed the book from Jack - he brought it for Ryan to use a quote from it for his essay on what makes the book an efficient machine for sharing ideas. If you are interested in the quote you can <a href="mailto:melanie.cey@gmail.com">email me</a>.<br /><br /> This weekend is the SUDS (S'toon Ultimate Frisbee) gala event. The theme is 80's so we are planning on dressing up. Hopefully my Mom will not be too offended by the fact that I will be wearing the outfit she wore to Jeff and Shawn's Graduations in 1987 and 1989. Ryan is dressing up as Slash from G'n'R because we found a top hat at Value Village and it seemed to work ok.<br /><br /> Along with the Gala it looks like Ryan will be working this weekend on Sunday. We also have a bank appointment at the TD to move most of our banking services (everything except for our mortgage) from RBC to TD. Speaking of banking... we paid off my student loan this week to save a little money on interest and free up the monthly payment amounts to save for school instead. This decision was based on the fact that we have enough money to do it right now and the loans were going to both be paid off within 2 years - should work out well. This, of course, makes us debt free excluding the mortgage for the house... until we can not afford tuition for Ryan anymore :)<br /><br /> Thanksgiving weekend we will be in town because we have to go to something at the Centennial on the night of the 9th. The next weekend I have a staff bowling night on the 16th. The weekend of the 23rd we are planning a baby shower for Bill and Kirsten. That's all folks!<br /><br /> <a href="http://www.sfreviews.net/strangwine.html">A Review for Harlan Ellison's Strange Wine</a> <br /><br /> http://space.rblords.com I haven't really thought about updating in the last couple of weeks because there has been too much other stuff going on.</a><br /><br /> The last weekend in July was the Saskatoon Ultimate tournament Disc Odyssey. We played in the C division - we only won a couple of games but some were close - I guess we technically lost out in the C semi-final. The weekend of Aug 7th was the Nestmann family reunion in Wilkie. The weather really sucked but we had a good time. August 10th - 15th was the Exhibition. This is where things start to get hairy. We worked 2p-12a on the 10th, 11a-12:30a on the 11th, and 10:30a - 12:30a until the 15th. Except I had to come in late on Sunday morning because on Saturday night my brother's girlfriend's water broke and I had to take her 2 and 4 year olds home to stay with me. Coincidentally, my parents were here because my grandma has some emergency surgery on Friday. So my mom took the kids on Sunday afternoon until Kirten's mom came to pick them up. She is not actually due until September. Even though her water broke, they induced her 6 times and they still had no baby so they went home from the hospital yesterday.</a><br /><br /> For this coming weekend we had contemplated going to my mom and dad's farm to help with the lentils and peas but I think it might rain. We have also not taken any real time to do any relaxing this summer so instead we are going to turtle lake with Ryan and Wendy.</a><br /><br /> In terms of my granmother's condition (because I kind of skipped that) she is in intensive care and had been ever since the surgery which was to determine what was causing her stomach bleeding. She had a rather large ulcer. She is gesture responsive right now, however she can not speak since she's got tubes all over. I have not actually physically seen her - I get all my info from dad and auntie Maryanne.</a><br /><br /> Fiona has moved in now and all is going well. We don't see each other much. She cleans up sometimes when we are not around and she fed the cats in the afternoon while we were working at the Ex. It is nice to have an extra set of hands around in case we need help with something. Oh ya, and she even made some cookies last week!</a><br /><br /> <a href="http://www.angryalien.com/">Here are funny flash versions of some popular movies.</a> </a><br /><br /> http://space.rblords.com In reference to today's title: <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail50.html">Strong Bad Email no. 50</a><br /><br /> This week has gone by relatively fast. At work I am doing Oracle type things (cool). At home... well we are only really at home to sleep. Monday ball was cancelled so we went to Boston Pizza for appies while Mom, Dad, auntie Mary, and Dennis had supper. Tuesday Ryan played ulti at the university and I played with the Groove at Forestry Farm. I bought a new SUDS frisbee for $10. Wednesday we ran a few errands and stopped by Shawn and Jan's. Last night we both played at Forest Park. Fantasticles won both their games this week, Groove lost on Tuesday, I don't know how they did last night.<br /><br /> After ulti last night we went to Shawn and Jan's again to visit with Mom and Dad. Dad is in for day surgery today.<br /><br /> This weekend we are going to try to finish the shingling job (again). It looks like it is supposed to very hot out so I guess we will have to get up early. Tonight we are going to find out where Marty is playing ball and maybe take a jog there.<br /><br /> This is <a href="http://madbean.com/blog/2004/17/totallygridbag.html">programmer humour</a>but if you like the Matrix you may find it funny anyway. <br /><br /> http://space.rblords.com My Mom and Dad had their 39th Wedding Anniversary yesterday. Congrats to Mom and Dad!<br /><br /> Last weekend we visited the Wilkie clan. There was a lot of religious and political discussion on Friday nite and then there were some games on Saturday night. We had planned to come home early on Sunday to finish shingling. It was raining but we still came home early. We got groceries at Cosco and Superstore and later in the day I had a hair cut at the new Sunsera salon on Grey Ave. Got about 3 inches off the back and some light layers. It is so much lighter in a ponytail now, I like it.<br /><br /> We got a tonne of rain last night and found out that the flashing on the chimney is not *quite* good enough. Ryan was in the attic with some bowls and pails to keep the water from going through the ceiling. He didn't go to work this morning as he is trying to fix it up before we leave tonight.<br /><br /> Tonight we are going to Eston as Andrew's funeral is tomorrow. I also have to go to my Grandma's and pack up the dishes she wants us to take. Saturday we are going to the reception for Ashley Leinenweber's wedding near Turleford. I don't know if we are tenting in their yard or if we're going to attempt to sleep in our car. I guess it depends on what the weather is like. Mmmmm that damn rain. Great for the grass and the farmers but the craps for my roof.<br /><br /> Beth - you can still play my games <a href="http://space.rblords.com/myGames.html">here</a>. <br /><br /> http://space.rblords.com Hello fellow homosapeans (I looked that up after I typed it - I think I even spelled it correctly - more than I can say for some of my other updates).<br /><br /> This weekend we are not going to Eston - instead we are going to Wilkie to visit the in-laws because Terry and family will be visiting there. We hope to come back and shingle the porch on Sunday with some help from Bill. (weather permitting)<br /><br /> We had to play make-up slo-pitch games on Sunday night. It blew, we lost bad. On the flip side - when we went to the bar after no one was there so we went to Campbells to see the twins. I know Kristin reads this site ... even if they weren't good looking kids I couldn't tell you :) But that's ok - because they are both really cute. Hailey (hope I spelled that right) has already even had a haircut! For all you Estoners out there - she's got a head of hair like Janine did when she was a baby. It was me - the blonde one - and Janine - the one with all the hair. Good thing I managed to outgrow that blonde phase (mostly).<br /><br /> A friend (Andrew) whom I went to highschool with was recently hit by a car in Calgary. He is not doing very well and I would not normally talk about these things on my website but I only bring it up because I want you to remember him in your prayers. (That is... if you are the type that prays).<br /><br /> This morning I received an email from another "Melanie" who stumbled across my website while searching for something else. She decided to visit because she is also married to a Ryan. There is even a ryanandmelanie.com or a melanieandryan.com. I don't have enough ambition to purchase a domain name. And if I did... it would probably be something much cooler like ... peterlovesskittles.com. (We have 2 cats, those are their names)<br /><br /> Late tomorrow there will probably be more updates to the site - although I am not sure how much you will notice on the front end. I am going to practice XSLT and XPATH by splitting all the code out to XML files and spitting it back out in HTML format. I think it is best to practice things you need to learn on things you think are useful. I think this site is useful (for me anyway - keeps me out of therapy).<br /><br /> I hope I have properly escaped my rss feed so it works (fingers crossed).<br /><br /> A random link to a cool thing: <a href="http://silverbackchallenge.com">Brad and Cory's strongman page</a>. <br /><br /> http://space.rblords.com In reading previous updates it looks like I failed to mention that we did actually find a border to move in with us. Fiona is coming to live with us in August. In preparation for her stay we managed to turn our upstairs tub into a make-shift shower - I think we did a pretty decent job.<br /><br /> Last night I played with the Groove at Forestry Farm until about 7 then I headed to Brevoort park to meet Fantasticles in case they needed another girl. Turns out is was a quick death (loss) so by the time I got there they were already playing the post ulti game... games. For all your Saskatoon ultimate news visit <a href="http://saskatoonultimate.org">saskatoonultimate.org</a>. Wayne - who worked a short time at Point2 with me - maintains this site. It's cool.<br /><br /> After ultimate we headed to the new deck at O'Shea's downtown with Brent and Sara. Apparently the deck just opened last night - it is pretty nice. The only think that irks me is the lack of vegetarian food that they serve there. A lot of places in the city have adopted the vegetarian burger - and Ryan and I are addicted to them so we expect every place we go to serve them... Anyway, Brent and Sara are heading to Banff this weekend. Next week they move to Vermillion where Brent will start his firefighting training.<br /><br /> Not much else is new since... yesterday :) Ryan Shuya, Sabrina, Guy and myself are hosting and ultimate nooner at work today. Looking forward to it.<br /><br /> A random link to a cool thing: <a href="http://www.1001winampskins.com/skin_details.html?skin_id=3201">Teen girl squad winamp skin</a>. <br /><br /> http://space.rblords.com No new content here... just a new design today :) http://space.rblords.com New Shingles http://space.rblords.com