Well, I did love algebra

And I used to finish my work before anyone else so I ended up helping other people in my class. Amazing how quickly it comes back to you.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Costumes

If anyone wants to wear a costume to the Pumpkin Carving Party, feel free to do so, but they are not required. I won't be wearing one, but I will be wearing a special Halloween-related kitchen accoutrement.

Been a busy week this week.

Work exploded yesterday. Fun. Hope to God that doesn't happen after John gets here.

Monday I ended up going home sick around 11am. Had been feeling crappy all weekend so it was to be expected. Spent the afternoon on the couch resting and watching more of Coupling. Love that show.

Since I was home, I decided to throw a load of laundry in. To my surprise, when the dryer finished its cycle, things weren't dry. So I had to place a service call on the dryer. The repairman came yesterday just before I left for work (which was nice of him, as it saved me an extra trip home). I guess my dryer has not been venting properly so it overheated and blew a safety switch. Replacing the switch and the service call would have cost $100, but was free under my extended warranty. Nice to have extended warranty on large appliances you can't carry in to be fixed.

While I was out running errands at lunch yesterday, I ran into my Dad, so I mentioned the dryer problem to him. He came by yesterday to take a look at how we could change the vent, and he's coming back over today to move the pipe, so the dryer can fit back in the limited space that is there. Dad also removed the big roll of carpet out of the garage, I decided I wouldn't be using it. That will make room for me to store the lawn mower and soon, the Christmas tree. Which reminds me, I had a dream last night that I was picking out my Christmas tree. Weird. But that must have been where it came from.

With the dryer pipe work going on, it finally forced me to clean some stuff up in the basement. Also took a look at the bookshelves with mold on them. It looks like the mold is just "on" them, not growing "in" them, so if I clean it up with the proper cleaner, everything should be ok and I shouldn't have to throw them out.

I also decided on a smarter thing to do with my landing at the bottom of the stairs. I wanted to recarpet it, but decided it would be smarter to wait and do that after I am sure I am not going to have any more flooding problems. This should have occurred to me earlier, but better late than never. The plan is to take up the tackless strips and lay a nice rug down on the cement, which if it gets wet, can easily be cleaned. While I was out at Superstore this week, I stumbled upon a really nice green rug, so I went home and measured the area, and went back and bought the rug. Close to perfect fit. Thing is, I also saw a Berber rug, same size, that would go well there too. And for fun I stuck the green rug by the door beside the fridge, and I really like it there. So I may soon be the owner of 2 rugs. I think I like the green one upstairs too much to move it now. It's a lot longer, and I can walk with wet boots on it further in past the door than the small rug I had there before, which was blue, and didn't really go.

I heard back from the international chain with the crazy shipping. They wrote and said it was so high because they send it via registered mail. They say since it's the same as cash, they have to send it via registered mail so it wouldn't get stolen. I don't really know any other company that does this. Still ridiculous. You should offer me the option of normal shipping, and I assume the loss if the thing gets stolen. I'll take that risk over paying half the cost of the gift card itself in shipping. Assinine.

I had something really great happen to me yesterday. While I was over chatting with my boss, he asked me about John's visit and we were chatting about that. I mentioned I had to get him a winter jacket, especially if he comes back at Christmas because he will need something warm and doesn't own anything that heavy. My boss just got a shipment of jackets in as promo items and gave me one. Like a really nice Marks Work Wearhouse jacket. Nicer than the one I was going to get John to look at while he's here. That was the most expensive thing he was going to have to get, just to visit here, and now it's taken care of. That was so awesome of my boss to do that, he said I worked hard. It's nice to know I am appreciated and this was a great perk.

I still have a few things to do around the house tonight before John arrives tomorrow. Have to vacuum. I am tempted to leave that for him to do, as he tells me he really wants to see what this central vacuum system is all about, and that he might have to try it out. Mwahahaha! Er, I mean, yeah, really interesting. So yeah, vacuuming, moving a couple of things around, need to pick up one more grocery item, do a bit more laundry once the dryer is back up & running, and then I should be all set. Wonder if I'll be able to sleep tonight?

Just ridiculous

I just had an idea for a gift card Christmas present for someone, so I went online to see about buying one. They do sell them online, great! But shipping is $12.50!?!?!

Come on. It's a GIFT CARD. It fits into an envelope that can be mailed for 50¢. I understand the concept behind the "handling" section of the cost. Sure, you need someone to grab the card, print out the envelope, get postage on it and drop it in the box. But really, it's not $12 worth of handling. If an employee makes $12/hr, it does not take an hour to perform this task.

What a rip-off. Sorry to the person I was going to get this present for, but I refuse to pay that much for a gift card. I'll just have to find another present for you.

What I Need

Apparently, according to Google, this is what I need:

1. to get back into remission
2. someone from near there who will work with her today to get a van
3. to board the blob ship that is hovering overhead
4. to increase her votes from 25% to 50%+1
5. some more shoes!
6. to toughen up
7. a shoulder to cry on
8. the dough
9. your help to understand tar
10. a rehearsal disc for her Grease cast to sing along to

How did they know I needed more shoes? The wonders of the internet :)

Just like Christmas Eve

Pumpkin Carving Party

Headed to Moncton on Wednesday and did obligatory stop at Costco. Got some food for the upcoming Pumpkin Carving Party, so I think I am pretty much all set. I have pop (even Pepsi, Scott T!!), chips & dip, cheesies, cookies, cupcakes with special sprinkles, huge-ass bag of carrots and dip, as well as Halloween candy. I think I got that covered. If anyone wants to bring anything hot, that's about the only thing I haven't covered. Even without that there is plenty of food, so just bring yourself and your pumpkin and carve away!

If you know what stencil you want to use, please let me know in advance and I will print it out for you. The site you can visit for stencils is www.zombiepumpkins.com.


A validation, of sorts

This past week was an interesting one. On Thursday I attended a workshop put on by one of my suppliers. In attendance were a lot of the same people who were at the mini-conference I attended back on June 1st. If you recall, it was after that conference that I received the email from that guy who asked me out but I turned him down, only to start giant enormo-blog with John. Later in the evening, as I was talking to a few people, I found out this guy hits on every woman not wearing a ring. Totally disgusting and blatant guy, I am told. He wasn't that way with me, but not surprised by this news. They hadn't warned me ahead of time that this guy was like that. So I guess it might not have been the Nicole Miller suit, but at least Slimy Guy did happen to be the catalyst for starting to chat with John. And A-J for not being single. :)

Slimy Guy has probably found me on the internet and is reading this right now. He made some comment about "being able to find anyone" on the internet. I loathe people who say crap like that. Sure, most people can be tracked down and identified if you tried hard enough. But actually saying that comment makes you sound like a real creep.


Weekend

Spent most of the weekend feeling like crap. Stayed home Friday night and watched Coupling Season One. Great show, I am really enjoying it. Saturday I got up and still felt like crap. My eyeballs felt like they were burning. I drugged myself with Advil Cold & Sinus and kicked myself out of the house to get some errands done, to my hair appointment, then to church. Then I came home and crashed on the couch, then later I IMed for a bit.

This morning I got up feeling like myself again, so I was finally able to accomplish some things around here... though not nearly as much as I was supposed to have done. I still haven't touched the basement. I need to clear things away from the stove so I can begin to use it. It's getting to be that time again. I did manage to do laundry today, as well as clean a few things up upstairs.

After buying the material for my belly dancing veil, I now needed it hemmed. I wasn't smart enough to buy matching thread at the same time, so this afternoon Jenn and I headed to Fabricville to get thread and her sewing machine to lend me a hand and make some hems for me. We also stopped by Frenchy's East. Jenn scored a fabulous winter coat. I scored a nice skirt, blouse, a touque, and a king-size comforter that is reversible and 2 shades of purple. All for $19. Doesn't get much better than that.


Exciting Week

This week is starting to feel like Christmas Eve to me. John arrives on Friday, and I can't wait to see him. I've been running around trying to get stuff organized. I've never had anyone stay here with me, so that will be a very different experience. I have grown used to this being my house, used to being here alone, not worrying about how noisy I am or whether I've left the bathroom door open. This house was my fresh start, my place to be on my own again. So this will be an interesting time for me, to have a bf staying here with me.

Can't wait to actually see him in my familiar territory. Being able to have him in my home, meet my friends & family, and just be able to spend more time together is going to be so nice. Not having to sit in front of the PC to have a conversation will be a nice break too. I'm looking forward to those simple things that you can't take for granted in a long-distance relationship: sitting on the couch together, watching a movie. Eating dinner. Going for a walk.

Only 5 more sleeps :)

Happy Birthday Cyn!!!

Consider this your ecard and a big Happy Birthday from me!

Hope you have a great day, filled with non-crazy people and events :)

Dieppe calling

I am on the road to Dieppe this afternoon. If anybody wants anything from Moncton, email me.

Free association, week 141

From a blog I found, http://subliminal.lunanina.com. Ten words or phrases that you put your first thoughts to.

1. On the verge:: of a nervous breakdown
   
2. Tempestuous:: child
   
3. Coherent:: what I need to be in the morning at work
   
4. Near death:: how my mother acts when she gets sick with a cold
   
5. Illiterate:: apparently most of the people who don't read my memos
   
6. Why not?:: famous last words
   
7. Period:: that time of the month
   
8. Long lost:: brother (don't have a long-lost brother)
   
9. Torrid:: the plus-size clothing store that Jenn found in NH and plotzed over
   
10. Nail:: biting (which I don't do)
    

Chair mats

I think having a chair mat is one of those things you take for granted in an office environment. I wheel around on mine all day at the office.

With my new desk and chair setup at home, I've noticed that I can no longer avoid having a chairmat. It's too hard to slug around on the carpet, and the chair is too rough on the carpet. That's why they make chairmats. Great product.

What I don't understand is the price. To get a chairmat that will work on more plush carpeting, like what I have in my house, is going to cost me somewhere in the realm of $52, and it is not even anti-static. That's for the smallest size I can find. I can get the same size, only with thinner plastic, for $20. This version will be too thin to work effectively on my carpet.

$52 seems unreasonable for a hunk of plastic. Really. Plastic is pretty damn cheap. They must be making a mint off these things.

I can buy a larger mat at Costco for $20. I have to check on whether it is the thicker variety. If it is, I think I'll be buying that one. The only problem is that it is the same size as the one I have at work, and that is too large for what I need at home. But, even if I buy the Costco one, cut one side to fit my desk, or move the desk around so I have more space to lay a chairmat down, I am still ahead.


So the morals of today's story:

• You must be able to get rich from manufacturing and selling chairmats
• Costco rocks

The weekend that was

So after putting up the Halloween decorations on Wednesday, I managed to leave the lights turned on all night. Gee, that was a great idea. D'oh!

This weekend was filled with stuff, though it seemed to just fly by. Originally on Friday night I was supposed to go fabric shopping with Jenn for my belly dancing veil material, but she had a throat infection and stayed home to rest. Instead, I found my younger brother and set aside some time to assemble the new desk I bought for my home office. That was way more of a project than I had anticpated. We basically managed to get the "easy" part done Friday night, but by 9pm realized that it was going to take quite a bit longer to finish. Brother wanted to be home to chat with gf online, so I let him go on the promise he'd be back on Sunday to help complete the assembly.

Saturday saw me going for a walk in the rain. I've been pretty slack in my walking regime so I decided a little rain shouldn't stop me as long as I dress properly. I know now that my hood on my winter jacket is not waterproof. The lessons we learn :)

Went to church on Saturday and drove in at the same time as my aunt, so I sat with her for Mass. After mass I stopped to talk to her for a bit and tell her my news. I also finally managed this past week to tell my immediate family (in person) that I had started seeing someone. It wasn’t something I wanted to do over email, so I am glad I was finally able to see Dad and speak with older brother over the phone. They were surprised at the distance issue but seemed happy for me, so that was nice.

The only person in my immediate family who doesn’t know is my mom. Ah, who am I kidding, my mother knows everything! She’ll be staring us down from the other side of church, wondering who that is sitting with me. I saw her this weekend at church, and she just looked sad, weak… and pathetic. It’s a shame that she’s done this to herself. A month ago, her best friend forwarded me an email that she received from my mother. In it, Mum talked about how she couldn’t understand why her children didn’t want to have anything to do with her. Funny, seeing as how she was the one who told us she didn’t want contact and was strictly our “biological mother”. Apparently history has been rewritten without my knowledge. As long as you continue to act as an irrational child throwing a temper tantrum because you can’t get what you want, no, we won’t want to have anything to do with you. Not if I want to remain sane.

Mum’s best friend was concerned about Mum, so that was why she’d forwarded me the email. It was right before I left for Tucson, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want to contact Mum and then take off out of town, so I decided to sit on it until I got back. The day after I got back, my Dad dropped by on my birthday and told me a nice story. My younger brother needed to renew his passport, and needed his birth certificate to do so… which Mum has. So he had no choice but to call her to see if he could get it from her. She hung up on him. Now, for someone who a few weeks prior was crying over email to her best friend about how her children don’t want to have anything to do with her, to hang up on her son when he called… Yeah. Guess she wasn’t *that* lonely.

Anyway, back to my weekend.

Saturday night I met up with Chris, Mare, Scott and Stew at the Ale House for dinner before going to see Lily’s Song at the Imperial. I enjoyed the show, and kudos to Lisa and Suzy for great performances. There were quite a few people behind me crying during a couple of the scenes, I think it touched a nerve with a lot of those who were there. I don’t personally know anyone going through Alzheimer’s, but I could easily see how terrible it would be to go through, for both the family and the person who had it. The play left me feeling very lucky for being healthy, and somewhat scared of growing older. One line stuck with me though, it was about how you can’t control what happens to you – there is nothing you can do to prevent yourself from developing Alzheimer’s. All you can do is live in the present, and make memories that someday you’ll be reunited with if you happen to lose them along the way.

Sunday was an inside day for me. I decided not to try and walk in the rain again. I started the day by baking muffins and cleaning up around the house. I had moved items out of my office so we’d have room to assemble the desk, which left the rest of the house looking like a mess. Younger brother called around 12:30 and said he’d be over shortly to continue the assembly. He arrived and we got to work. Normally I am a hindrance to these types of assembly situations, because I get frustrated very easily and have no patience. I did, however, point out to him that he had started to choose the left-hand orientation when he should have been using the directions for the right-hand orientation. Crisis averted there! We plowed away at it and finished it, with the exception of actually attaching the two main pieces… I wasn’t sure how I wanted the desk positioned, and it did not have to be screwed together to be stable, so we left that alone.

One thing I definitely need now is a chairmat. My new office chair is heavier than my old chair, and does not roll well on carpet alone. With the current positioning of my desk, I am having a hard time finding a chairmat that fits where I want it to fit, without spending a lot of money. So I am now thinking of shifting the desk 90 degrees, so my back will be to the window, and I can fit a less expensive chairmat and leave more open space in the room [see John, I do accept suggestions :)] Normally there would be glare coming through the window to hit the monitor, but seeing as how most of my PC time is spent in the evening, the early sunset means I don’t really have to worry about that right now. I’m going to take some more measurements and mull over this positioning.

I think the time for the annual hard drive reformat is soon. My PC seems to be acting sluggish for no good reason. I am going to plug some more RAM into it, which should help. Eventually the time comes when you must reformat and give yourself a fresh start. It’s about time I did a backup anyway, so that would kill 2 birds with one stone.

So on tonight’s agenda: go buy material, get some driveway markers before it gets too cold to put them in the ground, and get a couple of grocery and household items while I’m out. Also need to see if I can find some carpet remnants that match my stairwell carpet, as I need to replace what was taken up at the landing from the mold/flood issues.

I miss karaoke :(

Why

Who do you coffee drinkers insist on a) having a laptop PC and b) always setting your coffee cup beside it?

You know what will inevitably happen.

Coffee drinkers should not be allowed to have laptops. I know, some of you are reading this blog, but I don't care. I'm on the other end of this shitty stick. I hate coffee, and there is a soaking wet laptop sitting behind me, stinking up my office. It smells DISGUSTING. It has just created extra work that I don't have time for.

Even more than last year

Tonight I braved the chilly outside to put up the exterior Halloween decorations. This year I've added 2 strings of blacklights. They'd look much better on the gutter than draped on the porch as they are now, but I don't have younger brother or boyfriend here to help with that. So railing it is!

Let's see, this weekend. I was so exhausted from work on Friday that I went home sick at lunch and just rested for the remainder of the day. It was nice. Saturday I spent around the house, went to church, chatted with John. Sunday was turkey dinner with T-L, Van and family. Dinner was delicious, thanks so much for inviting me again this year.

Monday I got up and started cleaning the house, doing laundry, and getting the indoor Halloween decorations up. My aunt from Halifax called that afternoon, said they were up at my grandfather's house and were cooking a turkey if I wanted to come for dinner, so I said sure. Two turkey dinners this weekend, not bad at all :)

Preparations are underway for the big visit at the end of the month. I've been putting off buying a desk for my office since before I moved out of my apartment. With John coming and needing to work from my house, this old desk I have just wasn't going to cut it. So off to Staples in search of a new desk. I caught a great deal, $50 off plus I had a $20 off coupon, bought it on Sunday and the delivered it yesterday. It still needs to be put together though. Either my brother or John will get that task. Depends on who gets here first... brother has not returned phone call yet :)

Today I went back to Staples and bought a new office chair. I've had the chair I am presently sitting on for close to 20 years, and it was used when I got it. Therefore, time for a new chair. It's currently in a box in my trunk, and I am going to see if I can remove it from the trunk in pieces and perhaps attempt to put it together. All that remains now is to buy a chairmat at Costco the next time I'm up there, which will be either the end of this week or sometime next week. Chairmats are much cheaper at Costco.

I started intermediate belly dance class last night. I was a little rusty, but remembered a surprising lot of moves for someone who hasn't touched it since June. This session sees us using finger cymbals (zils) and veils. I need to get to Wal-Mart or Fabricville in the next few days to buy some material to make a veil, either chiffon or organza, and then get some help to sew a hem on it. The hem has to be as small as possible, so as not to interfere with the flow of the fabric.

I think work may have finally started to calm down... but only for a few days. The next two weeks are the busiest of the whole year, so I have to be extra-available for any emergencies. Here's hoping there aren't any.

I think I will head out to the car and see what I can make of this chair. Won't spend too long on it... really want to catch up on the mountains of books I've been wanting to read.

Things to be thankful for

One of the topics of conversation between John & I centers around the difference in the real estate market between SoCal and SJ. We've talked about things like this during our many chats, but something really hit me tonight as I was home, catching up on the week's TV that I had taped.

The Adam Carolla Project is a new show on TLC, starring Adam Carolla (duh!) He goes to find a house to renovate in 13 weeks; he used to be a carpenter before he was a comedian. The first episode has him driving around looking for a house with his buddy's mom, a real estate agent. The first house they show him going into on camera was going for $800k US. 1100 sq ft. With paper-thin doors between bedrooms.

The second house they were in featured a giant steel billboard right at the side of the "front yard", if you can call it that. This was one ugly house. Ugly green dirty carpet. The backyard was a slab of cement. All that could be yours for the $400k US range.

The house he eventually bought to restore was his childhood home. He paid his Dad $739k for it. They are basically ripping it down to the studs and rebuilding, because it's all crap. It appears to have a nice chunk of land, but the house was crap.

It didn't really hit me, the full magnitude of what John was talking about, until I actually saw these two houses on TV and heard how much their asking prices were. I asked him how much a house like mine (3 years old, 1200 sq ft not including full basement), with this much land (0.44 acres) would cost in SoCal. He lives in a more swanky, upscale neighborhood, so he guesstimates $900k Canadian. $900k!!! This blows my mind. I won't say here what I paid for my house, but it started with a 1.

Unbelievable.

This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. I am thankful for a great many things, one of which is to be fortunate enough to own this house. Where I have a back and front yard, lots of room, a new lawn, and for what I now realize is a very comfortable price. I am very fortunate, and for that I give thanks.

You know what?

I'm going home now. I've worked 3 nights this week, and I think I need some time at home for myself tonight.

Boo to not flossing

Here's your daily reminder to floss.

Had to go to the dentist for a filling today, because I don't floss enough and developed a cavity between my teeth. The freezing didn't hit my tongue, which is good, as I can still talk. However, it reaches up to the bottom eyelid, and I can't smile, so I feel like a weird robot.

If I had a dog

and his name was Karaoke
I would feel like he died today.

What I'll be taping tomorrow night

Conan O'Brien is dedicating his whole Thursday night show to U2, who will be the only guest and will perform three songs. Woo-hoo!


btw, after posting this and immediately getting 3 spam, I decided I had to turn on word verification... sorry.

Long day #2

Not much to report today, I'm afraid. I worked until 9pm. Had supper from McD's and my fries weren't hot enough. Jenn IM'd about her dishwasher installation, which was completed tonight, yay! That's pretty much it. Tomorrow night I also have to work late.

Long day

What a day today. I wish people could read. I also wish people knew the difference between September and October, as that would have freed up a large portion of my day. I worked until 9:15 tonight. It's been a long day.

Thursday's dishwasher move went well, no flying dishwashers out of the back of the truck, so that was good. After depositing it at Stew's house, he treated Chris and I to Suwanna take-away for our troubles. I had Suwanna Chicken, which was strangely more hot than normal. Hmmm.

Friday was yet another busy day at work, so I was glad to have karaoke to end my day with. Had a total blast this week. I do have to compliment Jay on being in the zone, and attempting "Naughty Girls". Truly I will not forget that for a long, long time. Still laughing about it today.

After karaoke we headed to see Serenity, where I had my yummy bag of popcorn (mmmm, popcorn) and offered deadly peanut butter cups to Anthony (forgetting about his allergy, but as he so eloquently reminded me, "No thanks, those'll kill me.") I thought the movie was good, but definitely a movie for the fans of Firefly. I wouldn't have gone to see it if I hadn't watched the series. I did kind of miss the intimacy of the series, the ability to squeeze in more time with each individual character. But the point of this movie was to wrap up the plotlines, not create new ones. I won't spill any secrets here, but there were some choices made with regards to the story that I just didn't understand. Mostly good, but one event I didn't get the point of.

Saturday night was impromptu Girls' Night, where Mare, Jenn and I went to lemongrass and then picked up Lisa and went back to my place for some karaoke. We had a great time, though I think I prefer picking my own songs :)

Sunday saw me looking after some outside work. I watered the lawn, bought shelves for the garage, crazily tried to get giant mirror in my cart at Wal-Mart. Thankfully a nice man came along and helped me before I hurt someone/thing. Then a nice lady with a tattoo carried it out to my car for me. I guess I looked pretty pathetic. But I finally have a full-length mirror. Got a lot of other stuff done around the house, but still lots left to do.

The dehumidifier farm in my basement is working away. The 3 of them are still filling up about every 12h. Wood is damp, did I mention that?

I got a call about belly dancing class starting up again. I am in intermediate this time, and it starts next Tuesday night. Haven't touched a single step since June... I am no doubt pretty rusty. If/when I hear about beginners classes, I'll let you know.

I love that October is finally here. Leaves. Turkey. Halloween. Visit from American boyfriend, who just finished booking his flights, btw. Done deal. He'll be here around lunchtime on Friday the 29th, back home again early morning on Sunday Nov. 6, and I can't wait. Now I just need to make sure he's awake enough, after taking a red-eye, to attend karaoke that night. Don't make me choose between karaoke and boyfriend... cruel, cruel world! ;)