Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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When it rains it pours

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You know that saying “When it rains it pours”? Well it’s starting to pour over here.

I’ve been off sick from work since December 4th 2005. By January 2006 I had a feeling I would be off work for a while, and I started this blog to keep me busy and to let out some of my feelings about being sick, in pain and house bound.

By the end of February I was starting to think of ways to be creative, and possibly ways to make some money on the internet because I wasn’t getting any better and I had a feeling I’d be off for quite a while. It didn’t help that my workplace put me off work in March for 4 months either.

So I spent a lot of time searching for ways to make some money – putting Google ads on my blogs etc. Of course the Google ads didn’t work because you aren’t allowed to have them on your site if you are running your site through traffic engines. They sent me a letter about generating artificial impressions and told me I was breaking T.O.S. so I took them off my blogs immediately.

I wasn’t having much luck finding ways to make money on the internet that didn’t take up all of my time or that were worth while. However near the end of September things started to roll for me. I found P and registered with them. By early October I was accepted and started writing some posts for them in order to make some money. I also hooked up with Mylot and I’ve made a bit of money there too. Then all of a sudden I had people writing me emails asking if they could ad links to my sites – the links were acceptable so I took them up on their offer and allowed the links to go up on various sites I run.

Then something else happened …

I’ve always helped others on the internet. Whether it was giving advice on the specialized care of reptile pets, running reptile related mailing lists, or helping others by creating websites, or graphics for their sites, working on site promotion (SEO), or fixing up code on their sites – I’ve always been busy, like for 11 years, doing that kind of thing.

A few days ago Mr. Fab from Pointless Drivel suggested that I start a business of helping others. I thought about it, and decided – why not? I’m good at fixing up messed up sidebars, organizing sites, creating headers and I’ve been doing it free of charge. Why not make a nominal amount of money doing something that I already do anyway?

Well, all of a sudden I have two customers! Two customers and I never even mentioned this on my site until now. Cool!

So sometimes when it rains, it really does pour and luckily this time it’s pouring in a good way.

I’ll write more later on the kinds of service that I hope to offer. I haven’t come up with any pricing yet but I’m certain that it will be reasonable. Feel free to contact me if you are sick of trying to maintain your site and have relatively simple things you want fixed up. My email link is in the top left sidebar.





I think he got the job!

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Chris went to work Tuesday evening and everyone that he ran into kept congratulating him on getting the OR attendant position that I mentioned in a post this past weekend. Only problem was that he hadn’t been interviewed for the job yet. Huh?

Well he went and had his interview this afternoon and while they didn’t say that he got the job the director of the OR Recovery area told him he should speak with his current boss about the possibility that he would be changing positions before she did. Chris has balls (well of course, he’s a guy) so he told the director about people congratulating him the night before, and while she still didn’t confirm that he got the job she did reply to him that she “might have mentioned it to a few people.”

It will still be a part time job in the hospital but he’ll have more hours. He’s guaranteed 4 DAYS a week. No more day,evening and night shifts! Plus he’ll only have to be on call every third weekend, and when he’s on call he’ll get paid for four hours work even if he only goes in for an hour. AND since he’s still part time he’ll still be receiving the 14% on top of his hourly pay in lieu of benefits. HA!

The job hasn’t been confirmed but it’s looking good. Keep your fingers crossed please!

Weird things happen to me

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Last Thursday evening I was sitting on the couch. My husband and I had just eaten dinner and I was talking to him. I can’t remember what I was talking about – what was on TV perhaps? Anyway, at the end of whatever I was saying I made a weird noise that involved me sticking out my tongue or twisting it around and moving my head to the side at the same time. It was supposed to be a funny sound to punctuate whatever I was talking about I guess.

Yes, you know I’m weird, don’t look at me that way!

Right after I did that I had extreme pain under my jaw on the right side. The pain traveled to the back of my throat, the top of my head. WTF? It hurt to swallow. OMG what did I just do to myself? And how? All I did was make a funny sound. People do that every day don’t they? Why the hell was it hurting so much?

I must have pulled a muscle in the base of my tongue or some muscle just under my jaw. Now who does that? No one! No one but super klutzy me that is. I hoped the pain would ease off in a few minutes. You know like when you hit your elbow. It hurts like crazy when you bang your elbow but five minutes later you can barely remember that you hit it. It took until the next day before it didn’t hurt or feel funny.

I’m shaking my head. You’d think that if I was going to pull a muscle in my tongue or jaw that I’d at least be doing something interesting or erotic when it happened.

Are you creative or inventive?

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I know a lot of inventive people – actually I bet many of you have thought of new products that would make day to life tasks a little bit easier, or you might have thought of totally new inventions that would help many.

Well, if you are inventive, you might want to visit the Invent-Tech Network blog where you can stay informed about recently licensed products and inventions. One of the more recent posts on the Invent-Tech blog discusses how a licensed product by Invent-Tech hits store shelves. Yes, it’s true, a delicious chocolate candy is now on the shelves of Walmart , Krogers and many other stores. The candy was invented by one of the Invent-Tech members.

My father was one of those people who often came up with new ideas for products that would make life easier – one was an easier way of getting pickles out of the jar. It was basically to have them already stuck on a little rack that you could pull out of the Jar. Approximately 10 years after he mentioned his pickle idea someone else invented a similar product.

If you are working on a new idea, invention or want to learn more about how to create and market your new products you should visit the Invent-Tech Network blog where you will find latest Invent-Tech news, media buzz, product licensing announcements and trade show updates.

If you are interested in inventions and want to learn more about what is involved as well as patents and marketing, you should also drop by the Invent-Tech website. There are free offers for inventors, information for the Media and Manufacturers, as well as trade show and event listings.

The next time one of my friends or relatives starts talking about a great idea that they have for a product I’m going to point them toward Invent-Tech. If they’re serious about their idea they will hopefully appreciate the tip.

Smallest bathroom ever

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I think if there were a contest we might win for tiniest bathroom in the world, well at least in Toronto.

The door to the bathroom swings inward – it misses the sink by a few inches. Once you reach the sink you have to squeeze between it and the tub to get to the toilet. The space between the sink and the tub is perhaps 1.5 to 2 feet- just enough to open the cupboard door below the sink. The door touches the tub when it’s fully open. The toilet is against the wall and when you sit on it- if you have long legs like I do your knees touch the cabinet below the sink.

Am I right? Pretty small huh?

Other than taking the tub out and replacing it with a tiny shower I can’t think of any way to make the space bigger. Oh I have one other idea – we could make the whole bathroom floor a shower floor and just have a curtain to separate the actual shower area. That might work.

Ideally … All of our three bedrooms are rather small by today’s standards. Our house was built in 1927 and I guess either people were smaller or they had no possessions cause the closets are barely existent up there too.

Anyway, back to my thoughts – Ideally … I would like to move the bathroom to the smallest bedroom, which happens to be right beside the current bathroom. This would make the bathroom about three times the size that it is right now. I’d knock down the wall in the current bathroom to make the middle bedroom a tiny bit larger- or perhaps to give it a walk in closet? Yeah I like that idea.

Someday we will do this reno, but that will be after we finish the living room dinning room, finish the basement and re do the kitchen too. Lotsa work!

So I’ve been checking things out at various online stores that sell bathroom fixtures and furnishings. I know it’s a ways off but it’s fun to plan and dream. I found a great site called taps4less.com that I spent some time browsing at today. They have a lot of nice bathroom furnishings at their online store.

Oh one thing I would really like to have in the new bathroom if we move it over is a spa bathtub. Oh that would be so nice. If I get back to work I know I’d look forward to that tub after a long 12 or 13 hour shift on my feet.

This is one reno project that I’m going to have fun planning. Have any of you renovated a bathroom before? If you did how did it turn out?

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