Less cranky now

Ok, I had lunch, took a walk, had a mid-afternoon snack and am now rid of the headache and feeling less cranky.

My weekend was eventful and uneventful. I crammed all of the events into one day.

Friday was incredibly lazy. I don't think I even got dressed until after lunch, and I wasn't even sick. I woke up, watched TV I had taped during the week, stopped to observe the 2 minutes of silence at 11am. I really can't remember doing much of anything on Friday. It was a nice, lazy day off.

Saturday was the big day crammed full of stuff. Dad picked me up just before 9am and we hit the road for Maine. We hit the border around 10am at Milltown. Decided to avoid the traffic at the main crossing. Wise idea, as it was backed up. We were driving with a small enclosed trailer, so the border guard wanted to look inside. We said we were going across for shopping, and she got this scared look on her face and said "are you going to fill it?" when she looked at the trailer. Hehehe.

We hit the Airline at 10:10am. I know this because it meant I missed stopping at the Post Office by 20 minutes, grrrr... but we had a deadline. However, when we were over halfway through the Airline, my older brother called and said he had to turn back and get his fiance's passport, so they were going to be an hour late. GRRRRR. I could have waited the 20min and stopped at the Post Office. Too late now.

With the extra time we had on our hands, Dad and I decided to go into Bangor and knock a few stores off our list. We headed to Sam's Club, where I got a 3-pack of Christmas Kleenex and Dad got a few things for himself which I took as presents for his upcoming birthday and Christmas. This shopping with Dad thing is pretty good, because he's extremely hard to buy for. Yeah, he knows what he's getting, but at least it's stuff he wants. We went to buy gas at Sam's, but since he had mailed in his membership renewal and they hadn't yet received their money, they cancelled his account and wouldn't let us get gas. Boooo. Your cheque's in the mail!!

We then headed over to Borders, where I picked up a gift for someone and Dad got a Maine map. We both have multiple maps of Maine, but of course none with us, and the shortcuts to Sugarloaf are better found when you know the actual route numbers. So armed with the map and me as navigator, we headed for Sugarloaf. Was kind of nice getting back to being my Dad's navigator, he trusts me with that duty since I love maps and am not directionally-challenged like my mother. Dad could have found his way there without a map, but we didn't want to make any incorrect turns and wind up late.

Getting off the I95 and onto secondary and lesser highways held some interesting sights. The first thing that caught me off guard was snow - the further we went, the more snow that was on the ground. Not just a skiff of snow either - enough that it was 7°C out, but there was still lots on the ground. You could see on the side of the road where it had been plowed recently.

As we were driving along, we happened to see 2 birds on the side of the road... birds? Those are hens! A couple of chickens had escaped and were hanging out on the side of the road. Next we were driving along and all of a sudden there's a racecar trying to turn onto another road, but he's going so fast that he drives straight into the ditch! I did a double-take, as I wasn't expecting to see a numbered race car driving along and wiping out. Very strange!

We got held up at some construction and my older brother called. We were supposed to meet them at the hotel on the mountain, but they were having staff meetings and the dining room was closed. So much for that plan. We met them instead at the gas station at the entrance to the ski hill. We swapped the trailer for my long-awaited kitchen table & chairs, which fit into the back of the truck without even having to put the seat down. SUVs suck gas, but they sure come in handy sometimes. For those who are interested, Sugarloaf opens next week. All of the runs looked snow-covered.

Since we couldn't eat at the hotel, we drove back to the next town and had lunch together. My future sister-in-law noticed my necklace that John had given me for my birthday, so I showed them that and a picture of the two of us - she said we made a nice-looking couple :) I also showed them a couple of ideas I had for my nephew for Christmas presents, and they liked one of them and suggested another that may be good. A trip to Toys R Us will be in my future this week, I think. I'd like to get my brother & nephew's presents bought and wrapped so I can take them up to Montreal either at the end of the month when I go, or when I head up for the wedding. Nice not to have to worry about shipping this year. After lunch my brother changed the headlight in his truck while my Dad supervised and SIL and I chatted while shivering - it was none too warm. Then we said our goodbyes, and left for the return trip. I think Dad was sad to see it be such a short visit, he commented that he doesn't get to see my brother enough.

Our way back was less eventful, being close to sunset and then dark. By the time we hit Bangor my Dad was pretty tired. I was going to take over driving but we were closer to Bangor than he thought by the time he mentioned it, so he plowed on. We hit Bangor Mall first, and since I was in Christmas shopping for other people mode, I was able to buzz through the mall in about 50 min, as one store was out of what I wanted to get someone for a present. Waited about 10 min for Dad to come back to the truck, then we headed over to the new Kohl's. Nice store. I picked up some stuff on sale - a Halloween tablecloth, placemat and towels that have gravestones and says "Halloween Rocks" at the bottom :)

Next we headed to Target, where I bought a couple of Christmas decoration-type things, but didn't find much else to buy. I went looking for a specific item that they were all out of. This seemed to be a recurring pattern for me on this trip - I'd go look for something, and the store would be out of stock. Actually a lot of the stores looked pretty picked over. Bombarded by Canadians on their long weekend. A quick stop at Home Depot to see what they had for closet rods yielded nothing I wanted to buy.

Last stop was Shaw's grocery store. They had turkeys on for 49¢/lb, so I got myself a 14.5lb turkey for $7 US. Go US Thanksgiving! That will make a nice xmas turkey. Also loaded up the cart with the usual stash of muffin mixes for breakfast, my favorite marinades, and (of course) IBC Rootbeer.

After that, we hit the road. My Dad plowed through the Airline in 1h 10min. Not much traffic at 9pm on a Saturday night, but we did manage to hit a coyote. I had my eyes closed and was resting, when Dad muttered something. I opened my eyes and all of a sudden there was something right in front of the truck and we drove over it like a speed bump. Dad said the coyote had crossed the road, and was clear of him, but at the last second doubled back in front of the truck. Would have done damage to my car, but the truck was high enough that it just ended up being more of a speed bump than anything else. Ka-chunk. Sorry coyote :(

We crossed the border at Milltown again, and the guy had us come in and pay out HST but that was it. Thankfully we didn't have to get into a discussion about the table. Yes, it was obviously a used item, but we had no slip of paper from Customs saying it had been brought over from Canada by my brother. No fault of his, though. He did stop and ask for that, but they wouldn't give him one. Said just to call the border crossing if there was any trouble. Yeah. Because you're going to remember the guy with the table? Because you'll still be working the crossing later tonight? Anyway, thankfully not a problem.

Getting back on the highway home, we noticed some hubub ahead. Someone had hit a deer, which was still lying on the side of the road. It didn't seem like anyone was hurt, no one was frantic. They were just kind of hanging around waiting for the authorities or a tow, I think.

We arrived back home at my house and put the table together. Unloaded the truck of my shopping finds. Chatted quickly with John to tell him I'd arrived safely at home, and then crashed. It was a long day and I was exhausted. Wished I could have made karaoke but I was too tired (and likely too late by the time I got home.)

Sunday I got up and went to church. They are still having issues installing the new natural gas-powered furnace, so the church was pretty cold. We made it through mass in 40 minutes, as the priest didn't really do a homily in the interest of not keeping us in a cold church too long. After that I came home, and kept on top of the fire to get the house warmed up. It was a slow start yesterday, but soon enough I had it nice & toasty.

While I waited for the house to get a little warmer, I kept myself moving by cleaning up the table. My brother had been storing it out in his garage, and had been using the garage to do some sanding, so every piece was covered in dust, and just had some general wear & tear gunk on it. I took some Murphy's Oil Soap and water and went over it all in detail and got it looking nice & clean. Spent the rest of the day doing odd cleaning, chatting with John, and watching some football. I am still on top of the league right now, with John 1 point behind me. Tonight's game should be interesting.

This week sees me heading to exotic Grand Falls... I am dreading that. Trying to pick a day to go when it's less likely to snow. Also have to head up to Moncton on Thursday, which is good - I'll be able to knock off some more xmas presents for people at Costco.

That's what I'd like for Christmas. A Costco in Saint John. Someone get on that, will you? :)

Countdown

I've started the countdown. The countdown to when Christmas preparations wear me out to the point where I get sick. Usually happens around Dec. 9th-ish, my Dad's birthday. I've been sick on his birthday the past 2 years. This year, however, I can't get sick then because that's the day before my brother's wedding. So I guess it will have to come earlier or later.

I never get headaches, but apparently I have one this morning. It's made me quite cranky.

Rant: I am not referring to anyone specifically with this rant. Just general malaise. So don't think I am referring to anyone personally.

I get extremely stressed out this time of year. I wasn't born with an "I don't give a fuck" switch, so I am incapable of buying presents for people without caring whether they like what they get or not. Of course, not everyone thinks this way, which means I put hours upon hours of effort into thinking of presents, shopping for them, wrapping them, delivering them. The presents I get in return often don't reflect the same level of thought and preparation. Some of them can be downright crap.

I don't care about receiving the most expensive presents. It's the fact that no thought goes into some presents. I'd rather people spend money on the less fortunate than get me a crap present. Wrap up a Mars bar and give me that for xmas, and I'm happy. It's my favorite chocolate bar, won't sit around the house going unused, gathering dust and getting in my way. And it shows me that you know me well enough to get me something I really enjoy - even if it only cost $1. The fact that someone sat down and consciously said "hey, Liz really likes this, I should get it for her" is worth more to me than most things.

I sat last night with my list of things bought, left to buy, and the usual empty spaces for people who are impossible to buy for. Eternally frustrating. This saps my love of Christmas down the drain. I care too much. I could just get these people some crap present... but I can't. It's just not in me to do that.

Retitled Romance Novels

These are pretty funny. :)

Anyone going to Calais on Saturday?

Is anyone out there going to Calais on Saturday? If so, can you let me know?

I'll be heading through before the post office opens and won't be back until after it's closed. I have 3 packages there waiting and was hoping not to have to make an extra trip.

Who knows, those long-lost maps of Tucson may be waiting for me too :)

It's Official

Tonight I booked my flights for my visit to SoCal in February. I leave on Feb 3rd (Friday) and come home on Feb 12 (Sunday). Had to make sure to get that $750 exemption in, since every store I can imagine is "right across the street." Hope I win the lottery by then. John will have to work some of that week, leaving me alone to go shopping. Dangerous. Very dangerous.

A couple of pics

Wow.

Sitting in my office this morning, I just had a visit from the receptionist. She brought in this very long box. I just received a dozen of the longest-stemmed red roses I have ever seen.

I don't have my camera with me right now, but I will post a pic later.

Wow. They are absolutely beautiful. I don't know what to say other than thank you.

Ok, that was pretty hard

We spent a quiet day together yesterday. Filled mostly with comments of "I don't want to go" and "I don't want you to go". Inamongst that running dialogue, we did manage to get a few things done.

We spent the morning lounging and having breakfast, as the evil clock decided to go at double-speed. Then we headed uptown for a special treat for John. He got his head shaved with a straight razor - something that he can't get at home. He was quite pleased with it and I think will be looking forward to getting another when he comes back at Christmas. We then headed to the Market and Brunswick Square, and picked up a couple of things for him to take back home. A quick stop at my office to take my phone off call forward and then we were off to church. Unfortunately the furnace is still in the middle of installation, so it was still a tad cold, but should be complete this week. Coming out of church my former pastor stopped me to chat, as he was in town for a funeral. It was nice to see him again.

On our way home from church we stopped and got some Chinese food for supper. We sat and ate that while watching an episode of Coupling. Go leftovers :)

After supper we made the wise decision of packing him up before getting too comfortable during the rest of the evening. Knowing how my couches like to swallow people, and that we had planned on watching a movie, this was indeed a wise choice. So we reluctantly packed everything up in his suitcases to be ready for the early morning flight.

Earlier in the day, he had gotten water in his ear and it had been affecting him ever since. We tried to get it to drain, also used olive oil, but to no avail. He couldn't hear out of his right ear. Either the plane flight home was going to make it better or worse. I hope he made out ok.

We watched Sideways last night, as he had never seen it before. I think he liked it, maybe not loved it, but liked it. I kept asking if anything looked familiar and where things were in relation to Irvine. A little like the geography aspect of watching Sideways :)

Last night we also sat down to book his flights at Christmas. It's a lot easier trying to work things out with different options while we were both looking at the same screen. He wanted to fly back through the airport closest to him, but again the times and options out of LAX were cheaper and better, so it looks like that is the route he will be taking. Another red-eye here, and a great flight home that has him leaving here late morning and arriving there around 4:30pm.

We got a bit of sleep last night but not a great amount. I was either upset, or unconscious and having some crazy dream about everyone in Toronto who was on a highway just dropped dead in their cars. Very weird.

Goodbyes are painful, and this was no exception. Although being fully capable of living on my own, and - more recently than before - enjoying it a lot of the time, I had very quickly gotten used to having someone else around. A friend of mine said to me that our time together is condensed. That is very true. It seems in some ways like he was here for a lot longer than a week, and in other ways he was barely here any time at all. Technically speaking, this week was our second date, but certainly not in the typical sense. We had to cram a lot more into one week than the typical relationship. You don't often take someone to meet your family on your second date. Everything went so well this week. Again there was that sense of things being easy. We have an understanding with each other that I can't explain, but I've come to value it greatly.

His flight was at 6:40am this morning, so we headed off to the airport around 5:30am. Checked him in, listened to the agent describe what he had to do in Montreal so if he didn't hear with his ear, I could repeat it. We sat down and just stared each other down for the next 10 minutes until he finally had to go to the gate. We said goodbye. I walked out of the airport crying. I got in the car and tried to keep it together, because it was dark out and I needed to drive home safely. I wasn't doing such a good job at that until a thought popped into my head, that I won't share here, but I felt instantly more calm, drove home safely and went back to bed until around 10am.

He's flying over the middle of the US right now, hopefully not in too much pain because of his ear. He lands around 3:30 and then has to get luggage and be driven home. Hope to hear from him between 5-6.

Then the fun begins. Where I become Benguiat Frisky and he Calisto. Where we calculate 4h time zone differences again. Where we're apart. It sucks, but it's better than not having him in my life at all. So I take what I can get, post his Christmas itinerary on the fridge, and look forward to seeing him again.

Time goes more quickly on the East coast

When I was out West in September, time always felt like it was on my side. It always seemed like it should be later than it actually was. At home, however, it always seems like someone keeps resetting my clock to a time that is later. Especially this week, I really don't know where it's gone.

It's been busy this week. I had actually planned on the weekdays being less scheduled than they have been, but it didn't turn out that way. Many people to meet, see, and talk to have meant a lot more scheduling than I would have liked. Maybe Christmas will go a little more slowly and with some time to just curl up on the couch and relax together.

It seemed like an endless wait between September 18 and October 28, especially the final two weeks. Now the trip is almost over, and it feels like it's gone by way too quickly. At the same time, it feels in a lot of ways like I found a missing piece that has always been here.

This was an important week for me. After having only spent 2.5 days together in Tucson, where we were both "on vacation", having him come here and plunk him into my life to see how it would all work out was something I needed to do. I had my reservations. I've been a single girl living alone for over a year now, with a distinct set of rules that can best be described as "anal". My last experience at living with someone, while there were great times, also came with a lot of put-downs and lack of respect. I never wanted that to happen again. This is only a visit and not truly living together, but I can still see a huge difference compared to my past.

Most of the things we truly appreciate are small. I can't tell you how much it means to me that when I come home after work, the outside lights are on because it's dark. The house is warm because he has the fire going (and usually hotter than even I prepare). There is someone there to greet me with a big hug and a lot of love. I get the impression that my house is going to seem very cold and empty next week, and for the next month or so.

I have been spoiled rotten this week. I hope I have earned and deserve it - part of me doesn't think that I do.

I am beyond lucky to have such an amazing person in my life.

I don't want you to go either.

Good news!

I got some great news today. I am finally getting my kitchen table & chairs that I have been waiting for since earlier this year! My Dad & older brother are meeting up to swap a trailer, so my brother will also be bringing down my table and chairs and my Dad will bring them the rest of the way. Finally! No more trick chairs!

John has been here a few days now, and things have been great. He's detailed our adventures on his blog, so I won't repeat all of that here. It is so nice to have someone around who actually wants to help me do things, and having that someone be a bf is a great added bonus :)

Tonight is dance class. I am starting to feel less than enthusiastic again about it. I don't know why. I don't feel like practicing. Last week's class was cancelled due to the impending wind storm. This week I don't feel like going *at all* because I have company. Maybe it will pick up for me again in the next couple of weeks.

Just heard that a hook fell off the wall at home and took some paint with it. Argh!

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! ;)

Dear $410 boots,

I love you too. But you have to understand that we can't be together right now. You are in Toronto, and I am in SJ. I just spent thousands of dollars on my lawn, my dishwasher & washer need repair, and I can't afford to bring you here to meet my feet.

Maybe someday...

Happy Dishwasher Day

to Jenn & Stew, who pick up their new dishwasher tonight. I get to pick up a truck from Dad and drive it for them so we can pick it up at Sears. Memories of George! Except this will likely be a 1/2 ton.

It's not such a happy dishwasher day for me, however. My dishwasher is still sitting, broken, in my kitchen. I called on Tuesday to schedule a service call, and they can't come until Friday. I've been on a dish rationing system since I heard that. I did do one batch of dishes by hand [shudder] and ended up with water all over me. I hate shallow sinks. When I build my own house, I am getting the deepest sink I can find.

The repair centre called me this morning to tell me they were having problems validating the extended warranty on my washer. Which I had bought with my ex and are in his name, but under my phone number. Oh please don't let me have to get in touch with him about this... he hasn't spoken to me since my birthday last year. So I call the warranty people, and they helped me out and authorized the work [phew]. Crisis averted there.

Work has been INSANE this week, what with my being away last week. I have 3 pages of things that have come up in the last few days that need my attention.

Good news is that I asked my boss for time off on Halloween, so I can spend the day with John while he is here. I also was approved for the week in February I wanted so I can go to California. Now all that's left is getting the ticket, which I should do soon.

My lawn is growing away. Thankfully it's been wet enough that I haven't done too much with the sprinker. I will prob have to put it on this weekend though, supposed to be sunny. I called the landscaper and they recommended we let it go for now. If there are any more heavy rains it will just wash out again. If we let it grow around the washout, at least there will be grass nearby to help hold things together. Sounds like a plan. I also signed up for fertilizer and lime application next month. I will gladly pay someone else to deal with that, it is not that expensive and means I don't have to buy materials/tools.

The continuing saga of the moldy basement

I borrowed the dehumidifier from Jenn & Stew, and my Dad also brought his down from the cottage. They are filling up about every 12h. That is one moist basement I have down there.

I headed to Costco yesterday after I finished work, with a work friend to help lift the dehumidifier I was going to buy. We get there, and all I can find is the demo unit with a price tag on it. It's missing a wheel, and the remote is nowhere to be found. I ask if there are any more, but none until the end of October, nor was there a discount on the floor model. Well, crap. I spent the rest of the evening running around Moncton looking for the same/similar model, thinking Moncton, hub of NB, would have more selection than SJ. No such luck. Every store I went into, when I asked for a dehumidifier, the clerk gave me a look and said I don't know if we have any left. Apparently they are a popular item right now. Home Depot didn't have anything big enough. Canadian Tire in Moncton was helpful, but didn't have the item.

I came home from Moncton and went back online to check how long it would take to get here if I bought it from costco.ca (7-10 business days - too long). I looked again at canadiantire.ca and saw you could check stock in-store. It turns out the exact model I needed was down the street at my friendly neighborhood Canadian Tire West. They got my business this morning by having what I needed in stock, when I needed it. Go West Side! So the nice man took the box out to my car, and it is currently sitting in my car as it is too heavy for me to lift out. Hopefully I can convince Stew & Chris to give me a hand later tonight after dishwasher duty is over.

I may dub this new dehumidifier I bought "R2". It's on wheels, and comes with a remote! I wonder if it will also fill the woodstove for me... hope there's a button on it for that.

Let's recap, shall we?

In the continuing saga of "things that have gone wrong since I got home":

• Due to the heavy rains while I was away, my new lawn has washed-out areas.
  
• Due to my inability to use a sprinkler, I think I made it worse
• Due to my inability to use a sprinkler, I had an extra 2 showers yesterday. I am considering skipping the bathroom shower in the morning and just taking it in the backyard when I turn the sprinkler on.
• Due to the excess moisture in my basement, I now have mold. Thankfully Jenn and Stew have lent me their dehumidifier until I am able to get to Costco on Wednesday to buy my own, for $80 less than Canadian Tire. I am trying to look at this in a positive light by appealing to my shopping side.
• Due to the fact that I am incredibly lazy at flossing, the dentist told me this morning that I have a cavity and have to go back next week for a filling.
• Due to the fact that I attract bad luck, my dishwasher is sitting with a pile of water in the bottom of it that won't drain. I can't find anything stuck and there is a seal that looks broken. Since I didn't buy the dishwasher, I am not sure if it is under an extended warranty, but I vaguely remember the previous owner telling me that it was. I dug out the documentation she left me, but it is just the user manual. The manual does have the repair company's phone number written on it though, which leads me to believe that they've called about it before. If so, great, should be on file. If not, crap, that means I have to call Leon's, and I am not a huge fan of Leon's.

Welcome home.

Just when you think you're caught up

So I've been cleaning up the house a bit since I've been back. Unpacking led me to clean out the floor of my bedroom closet. By clean out, I mean stick stuff in a box and carry it to the basement.

While I was in the basement, I walked over to my bookshelves to put a couple of books on them... what's that? Ah crap. Mold. F***. From the Great Flood of '05, the shelves of the bookcases came into contact with floodwater.

I bet there's also mold at the bottom of the stairs, from when the carpet got wet and I couldn't do anything about it... yup.

[huge sigh]

I figured this would happen at the bottom of the stairs. Wasn't planning on the bookshelves getting moldy though, so now I have to trash them. Dammit. That really blows, but at least they can be thrown out and that's that.

So what do I do about the bottom of the stairs? I guess the carpet and baseboard will have to be ripped up and replaced. At least I'm lucky in that this is the only area with carpet, and I believe the only area with mold.

I will have to go dehumidifier shopping this week. I guess the wood in the basement is what brought in even more moisture... Dad told me I should get a dehumidifier last year, but I made it through ok without one. Guess not anymore.

Parts of my lawn got washed out by the huge amount of rain we had while I was away. I have to call the landscaper tomorrow and let them know. I attempted to water the lawn today with my new hose & sprinkler. I think I got most of the sprinkling. Then it started drenching it too much... I am just a disaster when it comes to this outside stuff.

I am now off to research dehumidifiers... glad I kept that subscription to Consumer Reports.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yay, it's my birthday!!!!!!!

Hope everyone can make it over to my place tonight for some karaoke.

I made it home safe & sound last night, but man, what a long day. I got up at 8am (4 Pacific) and arrived in SJ at 11:30pm.

So karaoke at my place tonight, come on over after work. I think I will treat myself to some Chinese food at China Kitchen... bring on the BBQ spareribs :)


Because it's my birthday and I get to do whatever I want, here are some pics of birthdays past. My Photoshop skills are limited to cropping, so these don't look that great, but at least you can have a laugh :)




Here's me at my first birthday. Back when I was still in my "pose for the camera" stage.








This must be my 2nd birthday, because that's not my house. We moved between my 2nd & 3rd birthdays.












I have no idea why I have this expression on my face but it's funny! This is my 3rd birthday, the first of many in our new house.
















This is me on my 5th birthday, holding my 5 day old little brother. He was still little at the time, now he's a foot taller than me :)

Looks like some pen ink rubbed off onto this pic too. I am going to have to acquire some more Photoshop skills :)

Birthday Karaoke on Friday

I'm having some issues sending email from here to certain domains, so a blog entry is going to have to do.

In case you didn't notice it in my list of events, karaoke is going to be held at my place on Friday night as part of the birthday extravaganza weekend. I have the day off, so whenever people want to show up is cool with me (i.e., if you want to come over straight from work, that's cool). It's supposed to rain from what I see in the forecast, so that excludes BBQ, so I guess we'll have to come up with something else. Since I've had a long day at the conference, I can't work my brain enough to come up with any decent suggestions. Figure that out later.

Don't bring presents, just bring yourself. Hope to see you all on Friday :)

So the desert is hot

Before I forget, here is the view from my room. It is one of the holes of the golf course, where they hold a PGA tournament every year:
Not too shabby :)

Friday started out with my waking up around 2:30am, which is about on par with when I start to wake up at home for work, so that was expected. Checked my Blackberry for email, had a couple already. Made myself go back to sleep and woke up once again, but finally got up at 8:30. That's some good quality sleeping in, especially since I went to bed at 10.

After first stopping for some decent maps, John picked me up and we needed some breakfast. Now, bear in mind that though I had heard spectacular things about Krispy Kreme, I had never actually had any donuts from there, so this was my first experience. We had a nice server who after finding out I was from Canada gave me a Krispy Kreme mug to go along with my donut purchase. My first donut of choice was a chocolate dip... I have a new obsession. It melted in my mouth it was so good. I won't be able to eat crappy Tims donuts anymore after that, wow. This may become breakfast for the rest of the week!! We each had 2 donuts and then left the rest for later (amazingly they survived the heat in the car; very resilient, these donuts.)

Upon leaving there, I snapped a pic this "car", which appears to be missing a vital part


We left Krispy Kreme and headed further out of the city towards Saguaro National Park. We first made a stop at the International Wildlife Museum, or as we later found out its "true" name, the Dead Animal Museum. Lots of taxidermy and Supercroc!

We left the museum and headed towards the actual National Park, but the normal road to access the park was closed so we were left to take an alternate route. We stopped at the Vistors' Centre and went to pay the park entrance fee. We stopped to talk to one of the staff to get a trail map because we intended on walking a trail or two. He asked if we lived closer to any other national parks because it would be cheaper to get an annual park pass, but we said no, since John doesn't live close and I certainly don't because I'm from Canada. He asked me what part, and I said the East Coast (not figuring anyone here has any idea.) He said try me, so I told him New Brunswick, and then he said something about Fredericton, and I asked where he was from: get this.... he said Bangor!!! Of all places, I ran into someone from Bangor, can you believe that?!?! So we had a nice chat about NS, PEI, NB and Bar Harbor/Yarmouth. Unreal.

We headed out to the first trail, armed with lots of water, sunscreen, hats and a crazy idea that we could walk in 38 degree heat. By the end of it I thought I might die, and at one point in my heat-induced delirium I actually uttered the words: "I wish I had snow right now." Scary. I think I went insane there for a minute.

We did manage to do the whole trail and saw great scenery such as this:



Standing there looking at miles of cacti, and no tall trees like I am used to, is quite a sight to behold. I wasn't expecting to see the huge dichotomy of flat desert with tall mountains in the immediate horizon. The saguaro cacti are everywhere here, they really are the tallest vegetation around. It just seemed so weird to me, especially thinking of the tall evergreen and deciduous trees right in my backyard.

On our way back from the park, we saw this sign on the road. After almost croaking from the heat, and being out in the desert, this has to be one of the weirdest sights to behold:

"Ice forms on bridge first" Who knew?

Friday evening was spent tracking down some much needed Halloween decorations. Ok, well, maybe not "needed" but definitely desired :) Target was a disappointment for Halloween, unlike last year. I did happen to stop by Wal-Mart to look for karaoke CDs (nothing we didn't already see in Portland) and picked up some stuff for Halloween. I nabbed 2 sets of outdoor blacklights (like outdoor xmas lights), some candles for jack o'lanterns, 2 more carving kits, the new power saw for carving (can't wait to try that one!!!) So a decent haul this time around thanks to Wal-Mart.

I also hit Costco, where I picked up a book (Shopaholic & Sister) and drooled over some really nice xmas ornaments that I couldn't take back with me. I then stumbled on a really nice pillow, agonized over whether to buy it b/c it was $35 US. Walked back & forth down the aisle a couple of times, then gave in.

After that we weren't feeling up to the task of karaoke, I had overeaten at supper and wasn't feeling so great. We stayed in and watched some TV. I also got to open my birthday present - a beautiful crucifix necklace in white gold with a sapphire in the middle. I absolutely love it.

Saturday was a pretty slow day really. Did a little more shopping around, and after sleeping on the new pillow, I decided it wasn't worth $35 and took it back. Both of us were recovering from either not enough sleep or time zone issues, so we ended up napping and missing church. Thankfully I did manage to wake up in time for the meet & greet, so I headed there and saw lots of familiar faces and met some new people to mark the start of the conference.

Sunday morning was tough as we had to part... it was hard. I had the conference to distract me and it was full of info. I met another customer from Ohio and I think I made his day by discussing parts of how I do my job, and even gave him a demo of some reporting I do after bringing my laptop down to the conference. Also had a nice dinner with my main support guy, it was nice to sit and chat with him one on one. After that, I came back to my room to finally start to write some emails back to people, when my co-workers came along and coaxed me down to the pool/jacuzzi, so I gave in for a bit.

So all in all a great time so far. I am really looking forward to making plans for future visits with John and spending more time together. :)

Monday ends up with my having a good chunk of the day to myself, so I hope to get some more shopping in. And now that it is the equivalent of 4am at home, I think it's time to go to bed!

Enquiring minds want to know

So yes, I am in Tucson, AZ. It's 9:40pm (1:40am Atlantic) and my eyes are glazing over from being so tired, but I know you people will be sending me a zillion emails if I don't talk about my first day here.

Got up at 3:30am to go to the airport. Stupid AC ticket agent said I needed to get Tucson boarding pass in Denver, whereas my co-worker got her pass from another agent 2 seats away. Apparently not all ticketing agents are the same.

In Toronto I got searched, love having them go through all of my delicates. Great.

Managed to sleep on most of the flights, except the Denver-Tucson flight because I wanted to see the Grand Canyon, which I did. It doesn't look quite as grand from that far up but I am sure that it is in person.

Checked in at the hotel, pretty swanky. Will take some pics tomorrow. My room overlooks either one of the greens of the golf course or a practice green, I didn't look at it long enough to see.

[when are you going to get to the part about the date, already????] Ok, ok!

We met up around 4:30, he picked me up at the hotel and we headed to Olive Garden for dinner. Both a little too nervous to eat all of our meals, but we had a great time talking and laughing. I think I made the table next to us glance over at my sometimes-loud laughter. Oh well :)

We then decided to get me back to the hotel because it was late and even with naps I'd had a pretty long day. We then proceeded to take every street in North Tucson known to man in order to get back to my resort... if I'd received those maps like I'd ordered, we wouldn't have had that problem... stupid maps!!! Anyway, we had a lot of laughs trying to get out of going around in circles. I had a great time tonight and am looking forward to the rest of the weekend :)

Tomorrow we're heading to Saguaro National Park, where I'll be sure to make numerous Wile E. Coyote references at all the cacti. Karaoke may be in the works for tomorrow night as well... after we get an official map of the city :)

Today in the NFL...

Now I really look different compared to the neighbors...

Possible new home for the New Orleans Saints? No, wait, it's my backyard...


Just look at the badminton court potential!




Holy crap, do I ever have a lot of lawn to mow. Thankfully I should only have to do it once or twice before it gets too cold.

Highlight of my day, thus far

I scored a free labelmaker! Used, but looks new to me. Nice one too, takes 6-18mm tape. Woo-hoo!

You asked for it

Monday morning again and I get to look back upon the weekend that was.

Last post saw me having a relatively calm Thursday morning, hoping the afternoon would be just as calm... and through that tempting of fate my afternoon exploded. Enough said.

Thursday night I met up with Cyn for some supper at Swiss Chalet, and then some Suzy-made eclairs at Opera. Very yummy all around, especially the eclair - delicious. It was great to hang out with Cyn and have some laughs, pondering over the craziness of Roomie.

Friday was another day of work and then on to pick up Cyn and go to karaoke. Yes, we do have a problem. We pretty much owned the bar again and the list was pretty short, so a lot of songs were sung. I had been out of practice, so I found myself off until about my 4th song. I stuck to songs I'd done before for the most part, in order to get some practice in for a night of karaoke in Tucson. The short list did allow me to stick in a couple of new songs, so I picked a Heart tune to try out, and was then challenged by Suzy to do a 70s Heart tune (Crazy On You). Not like I didn't know every nuance of the song, so why not? Much fun!

We've decided that 2nd karaoke has too much country and a bad sound system, so we went in search of another place to sing. No luck on that front for a Friday night. We ended up going to Sobeys so Jenn could get some groceries, and then I dropped Cyn and Jenn off and came home.

I got a call Friday night from my co-worker, who said she'd be able to go over the border for me and check the mailbox for the maps of Tucson I had ordered. Excellent, don't have to drive down myself. With the Portland shopping trip not so long ago, I didn't really have a reason to go down there. She called later on Saturday and said they weren't there... argh! Glad I didn't drive down there for nothing, but I had to call this morning and request a credit. So much for planning ahead.

Saturday morning now being free, I was able to sleep in and then do some IMing. Headed off to my hair appointment, realizing I had forgotten my collection envelope for church. What I should have done after leaving the salon was go home to get the envelope, but instead I headed to Wal-Mart to get something. Realized by the time I pulled into Wal-Mart that I was going to be late for church because I still had to go home and get the envelope. Ran into T-L and Van, who saw me looking a little frazzled after knowing I was running late, but I stopped to talk to them anyway. Grabbed the thing I needed, then proceeded to the checkout. She rang up the item and I didn't notice it was overpriced until after I saw the receipt - came up as 12.97 instead of 9.97. Then had to go through the whole calling down to dept, going over to service desk for adjustment... the cashier was great about it, it was just that I was already running late and I am too cheap to let something like that go. Drove home, grabbed the envelope, and snuck into church during the Glory to God.

After church I saw my aunt, uncle and cousins and they stopped to chat, which was nice. Hadn't seen them since June. They've been spending most every weekend at their cottage in Charlotte Co. Got home from church and had some BBQ for supper, then spent the rest of the night on IM and plotzing over a music project that saw me downloading songs for a cd I was making for someone, that has now turned into more of a 2 cd set and is more for me now than anyone else... guess I got a little too excited about it and have now claimed it partially for myself. I'll make 2 copies :)

Sunday was a busy day, I had to get laundry done and start digging out the suitcases to begin packing. Also wasn't physically feeling all that well, it had been a stressful week, I'd been slack in walking and my body was not liking the fact that I wasn't getting enough exercise. The sight of suitcases also did not do much for my state. While I have done plenty of traveling in my life, I dislike it a lot. I like being in new places, and going home, but I hate the "getting there" portion of a trip. Whether it be by plane or by car, the getting there always seems to take forever and is very tiring despite the fact that you're just sitting around. My body also apparently knows when I'm about to leave town, and decides to do a bit of churning. I don't have any fears of flying or driving, it's just this weird psychosomatic thing I have. Now that I am sitting here thinking about it again, stomach is already churning. [sigh]

Packing is always difficult, but I am finding this trip more of a challenge than normal. In last year's hot locale of San Antonio, I realized quickly that I hadn't brought enough clothes. Sure, you can pack light and only bring a couple of each item. Problem is, unless you want to spend the money, you can't do laundry while you're away, and in a hot place you're only going to get one wear out of any given outfit. That means this year I have to pack more clothes, which means larger suitcases and more heavy lifting. 2 suitcases, a carry-on and a laptop. I just can't pack light this time. Not if I want to bring anything back!

I gave Lisa & Anthony a call and dropped by their place to pick up Lisa's karaoke gear for the big birthday karaoke weekend (email coming soon). Have a great trip to Vienna you two! Can't wait to see the pictures.

Spent the rest of Sunday night IMing with a couple of people and watching the Colts vs Ravens. I joined a NFL pool again this year, no money involved this time. I am currently in a tie for 3rd, one point behind the 2 leaders, which is pretty cool. May not stay there during the season, but if I can have some good weeks I'll be happy. Having been out of the football loop last year, basically only watching the Superbowl and that's it, I feel a little rusty.

This week will be tough, trying to pack and get organized, making sure everything pressing is done before I go. That includes bridesmaid dress shopping. I had an email from the bride on Friday night, and she has bought her dress and the maid of honor has ordered hers, all in one afternoon. Now the panic is on for me to get to the shop, try some things on and get it ordered. Pretty much the only time I can do this before I go is Wednesday night, because that's when the bridal salon is open in the evening. At least I know the designer and color, I just need to pick a style, and make sure it can get here in time so I can still have time for alterations if I need them.

Gettng more and more nervous as the days get closer and closer... more on that later.

A better day today

Feeling a lot fewer urges to kill today, which is good.

I was supposed to go to a movie with Jenn last night, but she had to cancel and I also had a staff meeting to attend that had the potential to run overtime. By the end of the staff meeting, I was so exhausted that I decided I wouldn't stay late and get a bit more work done. I went home, did a few things around the house, and was in bed shortly after 8pm. Slept on & off, but for the most part got about 10h of solid sleep, and boy did I ever need it.

So far today has been relatively calm. I feel better, and there are also fewer crazy problems popping up. [knock on wood]

Tonight I am headed to supper with Cyn, who is in town this week. She still hasn't seen my house, so I am looking forward to giving her the 50 cent tour.

From yesterday's rantings and ravings about my neighbor, you should have been able to guess that they have begun the installation of the lawn. The landscaper showed up yesterday morning and began dumping the topsoil and preparing for the hydroseeding. Dad called in the afternoon with some news about how the original builder of my house apparently buried stumps and other crap underground, and that was preventing water from draining properly, so he called to suggest I let them fix it now rather than get into trouble later, and I most certainly agreed to that. By the time I left this morning, they were already in my yard working away again. So things are moving right along on my lawn, and while I really won't see any of the positives until next spring, at least I will have a full spring/summer next year to enjoy it. With the weather a little cooler (and hopefully more wet) this month, that should also help prevent my lawn from burning out until the snow/cold hits.

I really do appreciate the offers of help from 2 blog entries ago, and I may be taking you guys up on some help painting the porch. It does need to be done before winter, perhaps once I get back from Tucson. Speaking of which, I leave a week from today. Time flies when you're having fun (and even when you're not.)

On tap for this weekend will be my return to karaoke, since I had to miss last week. Need to brush up if I have any hope of checking out the Margarita Bay club (which has karaoke EVERY night, btw - Jenn, can you imagine? Even that would be too much for us though!!) So no 80s bar for me this year, but I will substitute with karaoke.

Lunchtime for me, so I will eat, go for a walk, and hope the rest of the day brings a comparable level of calmness as this morning.

Look, jerk

I swear, when I finally do get a "hubby", I am going to send him over to your yard every f***ing time you're out in it, complaining ad nauseum about the City.

I don't care if you got flooded last year - so did I. I'm paying these people to install my lawn, not sit and listen to your stupid sob story. The City is NOT coming back to fix the ditch, they're DONE. Stop running over to my yard every time you see heavy equipment in it. This is my property and it's none of your f***ing business what I do on it.

I am thisclose to putting up a fence to keep your sorry ass out of my face. You drive a truck for a local dry cleaner, why in hell are you home at 2pm anyway? Go to work, jackass!!!!!!!!!

In a state

I am in a state today, just having another one of those days. Started the morning off at work with an unexpected problem, the person who was helping me was also having a rotten day, but we did get the issue figured out. Then another huge problem that was a service provider’s fault. Then mysterious PC problems of a co-worker that suddenly fixed themselves… argh. I didn’t start my regular work until later than I had intended because of firefighting.

At lunch, I came home to see Dad and how the retaining wall was coming along. He had gone out to get more caps, and I thought he was going to get patio stones for the ground by the door as well, from the same place as he got the bricks for the wall, but apparently he didn’t have that same thought. That left me to take a brick down to Home Hardware and try to find something that would complement it. I think I found a decent one, a red, but a bland red as opposed to a bright red. The brick has flecks of red in it, so I think it will work. At this point I don’t care anymore, which is sad to say, but I don’t.

I am tired of making decisions for this house by myself, carrying heavy bricks, trying to decide on landscaping… it’s got me overwhelmed. I love my house, I really do. But the little blonde girl just can’t do it on her own. The deck needs waterseal, the porch should be painted before winter, the lawn is going in on Friday or Monday... the maintenance side of homeownership is not much fun for a short, weak woman. Yeah, I can drive a truck with the best of them. I could even plow my driveway if I needed to. But when it comes to heavy lifting, or tall things, or fixing things, I have problems. I think I am going to have to start calling in favours from my younger brother, who comes over periodically to do his laundry. That will at least take care of the tall things issue.

The fact that I can’t make decisions to save my life only compounds things. Trying to decide on a simple patio stone not only left me frustrated, but I somehow also managed to scrape myself. [sigh]

Had to go back over to my grandfather’s house to work on his PC again tonight. Still didn’t get everything accomplished, nor could I find any problems with it like what my aunt was describing. ARGH! It looks fine to me, and it works when I’m there… as does every PC, apparently.

Had a few errands to do down at the mall, so spent time running around there and finally got home. T-L called and said she had gotten some pics back, and I had a cd for her, so she would drop by after work. Ok, cool. In the meantime, I had gotten some fresh pork chops, and I dug potatoes from the garden while I was at my grandfather’s house, so there’s supper. Started the BBQ, put on the potatoes. Went back to check on it, about to put on pork chop… cold. Great. Out of gas. ARGH. I hate filling the tank, because it is so heavy when it’s full that I can barely carry it. In the end I said screw it, guess I’ll have chips for supper and my pork chop will just be very well marinated for tomorrow night… oh, wait, I have a staff meeting tomorrow for 2h after work... ARGH.

T-L and Van came over, tried to show them the pics off the laptop I had home… wouldn’t load. Come on!

Great, I just ran something for work, and VPN kicked me out. Dammit!!! Have no idea how much it copied, but don’t really feel like copying it again… going to have to wait until tomorrow.

So this has just not been my day. Things are turning against me today, including my stupid tendency of getting cold sores when stressed, so now I both look and feel like a mess. Thankfully tomorrow is another day.

The Big Secret

...I've been keeping is that T-L's wedding shower was really a wedding reception. She and Van were married at 4pm on Saturday, with a very few number of people being let in on the secret.

So I've known about this wedding for months now and couldn't talk about it with anyone. Was driving me crazy!! But I did promise to keep the secret and I did so successfully. I actually threatened to bring my laptop and blog about it immediately after the wedding, but I also served as a bit of a photographer since they did not hire one. 160 pictures later, I think there are some pretty nice ones in there, the only drawback being that I don't have the greatest of digital cameras. But that's what Photoshop is for!

With the maid of honor being in Alberta and then unable to make the wedding due to health issues, I stepped up where I could to help out, especially since there weren't many people "in the know." I really wanted to help wherever I could... I've been in so many weddings that I don't know what it's like to just be a spectator :)

I had gone to one dress fitting with T-L, and at the time saw that she was wearing open-toed shoes, and asked if she was getting a pedicure, but she apparently hadn't thought that much about it. I thought, hey, why don't I treat her to a pedicure as part of her wedding present? So I took Friday afternoon off, having booked us in, and her sister joined us as well. What a great time we had!! T-L's sister was enjoying it so much she almost fell asleep. T-L loved the chairs, which leaned back while they worked on your feet... if anyone is still looking for a wedding present for her, might I suggest one of those chairs, LOL!!! I apparently have the softest feet the aestheticians have seen, as I was the talk of the pedicure room for my baby-soft feet. I owe it all to socks!!! I am notorious for my love of socks, and rarely wear bare feet. To which T-L's sister asked why was I getting a pedicure? Good question. But I do occasionally wear sandals and with the desert locale of Tucson coming up, I doubt I'll be wearing that many socks.

After the pedicure I headed home for a bit, then off to visit my grandfather at the hospital. Last time he was in the hospital, he caught an infection, so this time when I was in, I had to wear gown, mask and gloves. Kind of weird. Especially since I'll be going to visit him tomorrow and won't have to do all of that. He made out ok with his operation, to remove possible stroke-causing blockages in his neck. He's home now and resting, and I will have to go over tomorrow and fix his PC, which my aunt called and said isn't working very well.

Armed with the "I have to do family things" cover story (which was true, I just didn't need to be occupied all night), I left the hospital and went to T-L's parents house for a rehearsal get-together with pizza and finger foods, and watched as they opened presents from people "in the know." The other half of my present was money, as I knew that was what they needed. They also got a BBQ, tank, tools and a vacuum cleaner, among other smaller gifts. After that was done, T-L and her sister came back to my place where I gave them both manicures. While I worked on her sister, I set T-L up to chat online with that new person in my life (tell me that wasn't brave!!!!) With her sister finished and exhausted from the day, she left and I got to work on T-L's nails. We chatted for a while about many things, I kept messing up because I was trying to have a serious conversation with her while doing nails and sometimes I lost track of what I was doing, LOL! But they turned out ok in the end.

The plan was for her to stay at my place the night before the wedding, so I had done up the spare bedroom. After finishing nails, we sat and watched 2 episodes of the Muppet Show (ma nah, ma nah!) and had a great laugh, then off to bed.

The next morning, T-L got up and pretty much asked for Advil right away, LOL!! She'd called Van and he told her (teasingly) that he'd stayed up all night, and that got her all riled up! But we got up, dressed, and headed to her parents house for decorations and preparations. We put up streamers, buttered rolls, and put together the wedding "cake", which was rice krispie squares from Java Moose, arranged on tiers, drizzled with chocolate and decorated with strawberries. Between the tiers were green flute glasses holding strawberries. On the top was 2 beanie wedding bears. T-L had the idea to make them the cake topper, asking me what I thought. Me. Well of course I was going to like it!! The "cake" looked great, and was really different. Van was impressed when he saw the finished product.

After that was through, I headed home to shower, change, have some chat time online. Then I was off to the wedding at 4pm. The chapel was used at St. Mark's, small and cozy and a favorite of T-L. As soon as she walked in the room, she lost it. Started crying right then & there, and cried for a lot of the ceremony. But you could tell just how happy she was, and Van just looked at her with love. It was really special.

It was then off to the reception, where other guests arrived to see her in her wedding dress and the looks of shock were abundant. Lots of food and love, friends and family, and they had a perfect day for weather. It was a wedding to remember :)

I do want to apologize to Joanne for having to miss your birthday karaoke, but I think you will understand this statement perfectly: I had to be T-L's bubble.


Between this wedding and my older brother's upcoming wedding, I have now contracted Wedding Fever. [shakes head] Nothing worse than a woman who has caught wedding fever... or nothing better, depending on who you are and how you look at it ;)

The week of the ex, and other stories

MST Night

Thanks to everyone who attended MST Night last night, brought snacks, and Suzy for the attempt at getting me drunk with boozed-up cheesecake :). Unfortunately the first movie was less exciting than birthday cheesecake so we ended up cutting it short and put The Movie on after the birthday portion of the evening was done, after which people started getting tired and leaving. We just can’t handle that partying on a weeknight like we used to :) Mare and Scott stayed to the end, and we happily quoted along with The Amazing Rando.

It was great to see Shawn, Kristen and baby Jenna, who sat with me for a while. Yes, believe it or not, I do like babies. Just don’t want one of my own right now. She’s a cutie! Looking forward to a couple of people sending me those pics that we snapped of me & the baby.

September

September is now here and I can hardly believe it. It seems like the year just started, and now all of a sudden we’re starting the 9^th month of the year. Even though I am not in school, there is still that sense of “new year” that comes with the fall season. It’s in the air. I have to remember to stay away from Staples the next week or two… I’ve already gotten caught in some nasty lineups of soccer moms with carts full of pencils and paper.

The week of the ex

My interesting week seemed to deal with my exes. I have been in contact recently with one of them, as we are still friends and talk from time to time. That is nothing out of the ordinary. What is out of the ordinary is that two more exes came out of the woodwork this week. I had an email from a friend who has decided to move to the Caribbean for work. One of my exes wrote back to said friend saying he was now engaged and hoped to be married by next year. Interesting that he's finally settling down.

The other close encounter of the ex kind happened on Tuesday. I worked through lunch and decided to leave early and go looking for shoes and dresses for the wedding. I called Jenn, and she joined me uptown. When we were done, she had a bit of time to kill so we sat in Market Square and chatted. I looked up and noticed someone I wanted to avoid (he is a little wacky in the head and doesn't know when to end a conversation) so I said to Jenn let's walk somewhere so we don't get stuck talking to him. So we walked over to Brunswick Square Tims, which is right across from my most recent ex's office building. I wasn't really thinking about that at the time as I was trying to avoid the wacky guy. Jenn and I were chatting away while I was eating coconut donuts, and we were trying to figure out who in our group doesn't like coconut. I was perplexed, and couldn't remember, but said "well, my ex doesn't like coconut". Jenn said "no, it wasn't him I was thinking of" and she just barely got that out of her mouth when guess who walks through the door and makes eye contact with her. Thankfully I decided to sit with my back to the office building entrance, so my record of not seeing my ex in a year remains intact.

Last but not least, after managing to not see that ex on Tuesday, last night I was rummaging around in my office looking for some felt pads for the chair legs, when what pops out at me but a picture of that ex. I thought I had cleaned the place out of pictures of him, either given back to him or shoved in the ex-boyfriend box. Guess I missed one, and it decided to pop out at me last night in revenge for having missed seeing him in person.

I had just finished commenting to a friend of mine that I felt no need to blog about my ex anymore, that it was a waste of time because I had nothing to say. Guess I asked for it!!

I find it very funny, the timing of these ex encounters. I spent my summer professing my "just friends" creed, but now that September is here, I find myself close to a possible new relationship - closer than I wanted to allow myself to get, but my heart often decides to run away faster than my brain can catch up with it. Funny how the exes have popped up now, almost like a test... "Are you sure you've dealt with everything? Are you sure you're ready to move on?" Sure, I felt a little out of sorts after almost running into the most recent ex, as it would have been the first time seeing him since we split, but by the end of Tuesday night after a great conversation with the new person in my life, I forgot it had even happened. I am so much better off now, even if this relationship doesn't work out... but I really hope it does.

Grandfather

I feel like a huge heel today, as it slipped my mind that my grandfather was having surgery. The way it was described to me, it was day surgery and he would be sent home after it was finished. He made it through fine today, but will remain in the hospital until Sunday. This unfortunately means I will have to miss karaoke tomorrow night as I'll be busy with a hospital visit and my aunt is also in from out of town. Sorry Lisa, and Jenn, I won't be able to drive you :( I should be back next week though and ready for some rock chick singing :)