LOL, no, I feel like I've hit the ground from a huge height a few times.  Since my last posting in February (!) there's been a lot going on as you can well imagine.  The most recent thing is going into a partnership with 3 other people (1 being Jim) to do an online business that is a combination of a subscription newsletter, podcasting, and will include other interesting things like a form of dating service that I won't go into too much detail on at the moment.  The idea of that service is kind of unique and is for like-minded individuals but like all things, this does take a lot of time to get off the ground which except for one partner, the rest of us don't have much of at the moment. 

We've done two podcasts, one with Robert Burnett (one of the partners) who is originally from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and has a fascinating take on Robert Mugabe and things like vile vortexes and UFOs.  He is also a very gifted psychic and it's been interesting being around him while he cleared a haunted building and described who it was that was haunting it.  He lives in England but is working on being a permanent resident of Canada to be with his twin flame Vicki.  Vicki is also a partner.

The other podcast is the illustrius (ahem) Geneve Blue, author of I Ching Jukebox, which is now available from Amazon worldwide as well as Barnes & Noble and on Lulu.com where is also available as a PDF download.  On Amazon the look inside feature is active so people interested in taking a peek can go there.  Now if the title of this book sounds oddly familiar, that's because I've been talking about it here for a few years.  That's actually my own novel that I did for Nanowrimo one year and did a fair bit of editting to make it into what I've been told is a book that is touching and interesting with characters that seem real.  On the Amazon.com site is a very nice review that was put up.  To date it has only sold two copies, so I would dearly love it if people could purchase a copy (even the PDF, which is a lot cheaper than the paper version) and post their impressions.  The reason why I decided not to publish it under my own name, like my other book "Off Air" that is in editing right now is because of the subject matter, language and some of the incidents that occur would be offensive to some people in my family so I thought it was better just to use a pseudonom and just not talk about it.  I'm proud of this book, it is the sort of thing I like to read so I didn't want to leave it in a drawer gathering dust waiting for a time people wouldn't be offended.  That won't happen, so there it is out there for the world to see.

Now, about the podcasts, if you go to http://www.indigostarcrystalradio.info/podcasts.html they are both there (you may have to scroll over on the page a bit, I noticed the left table is too large - I'll fix that).  On my Geneve Blue podcast I'm reading part of Chapter 2.

Other than that, son did very well this year getting up to level 6 in swimming and step 4 in downhill skiing and is now back in gym class which he really enjoyed and did well in.  Quite a pleasant change from last year!  He does however need to take a couple of medications to help deal with anxiety (that I personally believes comes from trying to not act out when stressed and instead comes out physically) and for migraines.  I worry though of the possibility that these reactions may actually be a mild form of seizure which is a 30% possibility for Asperger's people.  However, since the medication does seem to be helping, we're just keeping an eye out for changes. Anyway, things are looking up for my (not so little) guy.

Daughter had a very full year catching up on missed school due to their move to my area, but catch up she did and she is now accepted in Ottawa U for the BScN program, in a collaborative program campus nearby.  We are all very happy for her, and since where the campus is is a bit of drive (and she doesn't have her license yet or a car) from me, she decided to live in the town.  Also, it gives her a chance to truly be an adult on her own - which she is, she just turned 18! - and thankfully she found a very nice place to live which is great.  She also has a very nice boyfriend and it's been wonderful to see all the good changes she's had this year.

I've been very busy with work and still doing that damned night cleaning but there is hope on the horizon if the new project I was assigned to offers more money for the duration.  I've been working very hard on it and doing overtime to try to keep up, but I'm afraid if it isn't more money I may have to bow out.  I hope not because I do believe I can make a difference but I can't keep up this pace if I have to still be cleaning at night.  It's been very tiring and will be nearly impossible come the start of school and all those after school activities for son.  So, keeping fingers crossed I'll be hearing something about that soon.

On the bright side of this is that ex, since moving here, has had quite a few more jobs to apply to - one looks particularly hopeful so again keeping fingers crossed.  That will help me out as well since there's things I pay for that would like to hand over to him.

It's been a expensive last few months with school stuff and graduations, etc., so unfortunately I hit the wall with one of my biggest bills which is the accursed cell phones.  5 cell phones is a rather big bill every month, and I paid part of the bill, intended to pay the rest and then the next pay do the next bill but Rogers wouldn't accept that so told me pay up for that month and the current month or be disconnected.  We were, and now I have to pay all that plus the next month to get them back.  My only hope on that is back pay, but after being such a good customer for so long, this really leaves a bad taste in my mouth (can we say extortion?) and I am now considering paying their horrendous cancellation fees just to never have to deal with them again.  I'm not sure how they figure getting someone to pay 3 months worth of bills for a late month is going to make someone who is having difficulty pay up.  Doesn't quite make sense.  Anyway, considering 35 kms of my drive is in the country I worry about car break downs with no place close by to walk to so I will do something, even if it's a pay as you go phone with somebody else.

Similarly, after my fiasco with the carpenter friend last year and Hydro One, I was hit by an out of the blue $400 security deposit last April (months after the problems) due to my bad year and again, that to me is extortion.  They seem to be almost determined to cut people's electricity off, and since it is an essential utlity and the only game in town, I still can't believe the provincial government has done nothing to protect their citizens from this type of behaviour from a company that charges very ridiculous rates, including a fee every month to pay off the debt of its previous incarnation.  I swear that as soon as finances are straightened out I will be installing solar panels.  It can't happen soon enough.

Anyway, regardless of the money issues, things are definitely brighter than they were this time last year and there are even more happy things to look forward to, so I'm doing just that.

And that's it for me, and a promise I will make the effort to keep this updated sooner...

Cathi