Monday, April 30

random ramblings

a bunch of weird things happened this weekend. i had a call thursday about some suspicious activity on my credit card. i called about it friday after work and found out that there had been two more book purchases after the one i had made last wednesday. so they cancelled my card and were sending my file to the fraud department. great, except i don't have a credit card for 7-10 business days. i'm happy they caught it though.

and then we had a call from the vet (through j's sister) saying that our cat food had been recalled. we had to go and swap the stuff we did have for a new kind of food. we only bought a small bag in case they didn't like it. they have the weak little digestive systems so i was picturing fun times coming out of both ends for a while until they got used to the new food. but no, no problems at all. they love the new food and don't seem bothered by it at all. a big relief for us.

i was talking to j's dad who said that the half marathon was at capacity and that i couldn't sign up anymore. i went online to check it out and was waiting for an error message telling me the race was full, but it never came, and so i am officially registered in the half marathon. there is no backing out now. good thing i can run a whole 8K. and j was talked into running the 10K race with his mom. i hate to say but he doesn't seem all that enthused. i'll try and get him out.

and i guess the last piece of news is that we picked up my bike from the old house last night and so i will be biking again soon.

nothing as exciting as a new kitten though.

Friday, April 27

to bathe or not to bathe

i came up with this last night and i was all pleased with myself. for about two seconds. then i realized what it sounded like. here goes... i think i finally like to bathe. get it? it sounds like i only bathe because i have to when in reality i have nothing wrong with being clean and actually prefer it to being dirty. but what i mean is that i took a bath last night and enjoyed myself.

i started showering as soon as i could. i never liked lying around in the tub. just not something for me. and then, when i was 19, one day near the end of the summer right before leaving for university, i mysteriously had all sorts of huge mosquito bites all over my legs. i went to the walk-in clinic not far from my house and sat in the waiting room scratching my legs until the bites turned into huge, distorted welts. i was crying so hard because i had never ever felt such pain. i was so itchy and i was convinced my legs would never go back to normal.

i got in to see the doctor - they put me ahead of other people because of all the wailing - and was told that the mosquito bites were in fact hives. and hives are the body's way of telling you that something isn't right inside so they did a throat swab. could be strep, could be mono. doc told me to go home and take a baking soda (or powder, whatever it is) bath. still crying, i head home, pour the soda/powder into the tub and get in. a little while later i woke up. still in the tub. still covered in hives. and crying once again. people drown in bathtubs.

and that was the beginning of the worst month of my life. the throat swab came back, positive for mono. to make a long story short, i spent the next 4 weeks not training for hockey as planned, but in bed. and three of those four weeks, when i wasn't sleeping, i was puking. i'm not exaggerating. and i wouldn't puke in anything other than the toilet so everytime i had to puke, which was about 25 times a day, i would wake up and run to the bathroom down the hall. one time, on my way to the bathroom, i fell over (i was obviously a little weak) and my head hit the wall. that's what broke my fall. but i still had to puke, so i got up and wobbled to the bathroom, crying of course. i was a mess.

i lost 40 pounds that summer and didn't make the hockey team in the fall. and then the cruel frosh-15 came and hit me hard giving me the frosh-20 on top of the 40 pounds i gained back once i started eating again. your skin just can't forgive you for that.

all that to say that i don't like taking baths. never have, but after falling asleep in the tub and (possibly) almost drowning, it took years for me to even consider taking one again. but now we have a big tub and i chose to take a bath last night. and i liked it. seems like i finally beat mono. at least there were no hives involved this time.

Thursday, April 26

oooh questions in the comments!

be still my heart (i don't think i've ever said or written that before) there are questions in the comments and i haven't thought of anything to write about yet for today so i'll go about answering some questions. or maybe just elaborating on some of my previous statements so that it will be more clear and there won't be any questions. i don't know.

okay, the trip to bc is so that we can fly j's parent's cats back to ottawa. yes, they are the same breed as our two. back in april 2004, we flew them out there. i had just just finished school and moved my stuff back to ottawa. we were getting married in a couple of months and heading out for our first major trip together. i had a job lined up to start right when we got back. it was a whirlwind.

we had a pretty uneventful flight out to victoria. it was strange having the cats. they were in soft-sided cat carriers (think duffel bags with mesh sides for the cats to see out/ us to see in) so we each had a cat (j got whitey, the male, and i got stinky.. errr, i mean smelly... errr, i mean sydney, the female). one lady in the ottawa airport came up to me and asked if i had a rabbit. i said no, it's a cat. she asked if the cat was soft. i said no, she's not soft at all. truthfully, her hips are fluffy and soft, but she is mostly bristly-feeling. like a toothbrush. anyways, the woman left me alone after that.

the airport security wanted us to take the cats out of the carriers so they could check them, for drugs i'm assuming, but they wanted to do it right at the security thingy, where there are tons and tons of people, lots of noise and access to the entire terminal. like we want to let two scared cats loose in a huge airport. no thank you! finally some smart thinking security person thought to take us to the personal room where we took the cats out, one at a time, and had the bags checked. after that, we were off.

on the plane (you didn't think the fun ended there, did you?) we were sitting in the emergency exit row and had the attendant come to give us the little speech about how to use the doors. check. then she told us that, in the event of an emergency and we had to evacuate the plane, we were to take the cats out of the carriers and leave the carriers. she obviously doesn't have cats. let me spell this out for you, cats each have four paws. each paw has five little toes. each little toe has a sharp little claw with which to shred the skin of anyone disturbing the little pussy cats. that's 40 sharp little claws. again, we disagreed and said we would be jumping out of the plane with the cats IN their cases whether they liked it or not. we were hoping the cases would float. never did check on that though.

we had a four-hour layover in the calgary airport. right after getting off the plane, we wanted to check on the cats, so we went into one of those family baby change room thingys. we must have looked so strange: two people with school bags and duffel bags head in the family washroom for a quickie. it wasn't like that. we gave them some water and that was about it. they were a little stressing and so was j. i was just excited. we were almost all the way to beeeeseeeee, where i'd never been.

so, that's what happened on the way to victoria. we got there okay and the cats were let out of the cases and went a little nuts exploring their new surroundings, but settled in relatively quickly.

and now it's time for the kitties to come home (j's parents too, just so you know). we'll fly out there, spend a week in the warmer-than-here climate, maybe explore that area a little (head down to seattle perhaps, or over to vancouver or banff, or up vancouver island to check out the surfing.. don't know yet), and then come home with the cats.

j's parents will be driving across the country so the cats will (most likely) live with us until they're back (possibly around the second week in july). we still have to figure out how to deal with having all four in the same house. ours eat whenever they want but the other two have a strict feeding schedule and they eat different food. thankfully we can close off the basement if needed. anyways, we'll figure it out and everything will be okay.

and we get a trip out of the deal. works for me! if only it was sooner though. after my tuesday-feels-like-friday-but-really-is-just-tuesday kind of week i'm having, i could use a vacation. i did give in and napped after work last night but i napped for way too long and couldn't fall asleep until late. and i've been dreaming about the next day so when i wake up it's always such a kick in the pants that i haven't already gotten up, brushed my teeth, showered, whatever and am at work. i'm still in bed and already exhausted. i wonder if they have anything i could take for that. super sleeping drugs? i don't think i sleep for long enough at a time to take sleeping pills, don't you need something like 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep time?

maybe that's what i'll take up this summer instead of playing ball: sleeping enough. is that a sport? will it make me fit? i need to do some reading up on this activity.

Wednesday, April 25

not-friday

did i ever disappoint myself yesterday. i was terribly confused and thought it was friday. i kept thinking about what i had to do this weekend and what i was going to do last night. i kept reminding myself to bring my carrots home so i could eat them this weekend.

and then it hit me: i have hockey tonight so it's only tuesday. and you know what that makes today? the worst wednesday possible. and then tomorrow is the worst thursday, and finally the worst friday has to come and go before i get to the weekend. what a cruel world.

i am melodramatic.

my news from yesterday: i booked our flights to bc for this summer. we'll be going from june 15th to the 23rd and will have two extra cats in-house afterwards for a couple of weeks while j's parents trek across the country. don't know yet how we'll sort that out but we will. i'm envisioning all-out cat epic cat brawls (not just cat fights for these four. oh nono! cat brawls!) let's just hope all four cats survive and our furniture and carpeting come out unscratched.

given my melodramatisy (and my making-up-word-isy) i've been treating today a lot like a saturday in that i've hardly done any work and i've been talking and talking with my coworker all morning. take that, wednesday!

now it's off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz.

Tuesday, April 24

of note

1) my brother is leaving in 6 weeks for prague. he is spending a year (give or take) there for work. i'm very proud of him. i'm almost positive i couldn't just pick up and go across the world for that long.

and since he doesn't read this i can tell you that i got him the lonely planet guide book for prague. j and i really liked having the costa rica book for our trip so i'm hoping he will find it useful. (j, by the way, i bought a book.)

2) crazy aunt purl, a friend of mine (where friend = stranger whose blog i read and who doesn't know me from eve), wrote a book. i feel like i know her because i read her thoughts every day or two and see pictures of her cats and plants and such, but i really don't know her. it's probably a super funny book though.

so while i was buying the lonely planet book for my brother, i pre-ordered crazy aunt purl's book. (j, by the way, i bought more than one book.)

3) umm, i also bought a latin american spanish phrase book. but j really wants this too. plus i had a gift card (maybe from my birthday?) so it didn't cost full price. (j, surprise! more than two books!)

4) i would really like to be able to call myself a runner, but i'm more of an imposter in the running world. i need some inspiration (a running book maybe?) i went to run last night, hoping to get in 5 or 6K before the rain started, but wimped out way before then because the wind was so strong it was making my ears hurt. i'm such a wimp. (but not as wimpy as j who complains the whole time we're running.. when he comes running that is.)

5) we're thinking of getting another car. we're not sure if we'll lease or buy (new or used) or what, but having one car is proving to be a little more difficult now that we don't live in such a central neighbourhood. plus, we both came into this relationship with a car and have since downsized to only one and it's trying at times. did i mention that i don't get to drive all that much? did i mention that i kinda feel like my freedom died along with lumi (my 92 chevrolet lumina, lumi, who i loved until he started dying while i was driving along. yep, that was awesome)? well, some of my freedom anyways. (j, don't worry, i still like you.)

6) lists are good for some people. personally, i am a list maker. i make lists for everthing. (drives j crazy.) and yes, the house list is a huge long list that just keeps getting longer no matter how many things we buy, but how else would i know what we need without the list? but talking about such a list got comments and comments are good.

7) complaining about deliquent bloggers on facebook got at least one blog updated (thanks, skinnykitty!) but i do understand that some people, lots of people actually, don't blog often. i get it. personally, i feel weird if i haven't blogged in a couple of days. but that's just me. plus, i can blog from work, just don't tell my boss.

8) alan and sylvia, my good friends (for real this time), are getting a kitten! it's possible i am just as excited, or more excited, than they are. their house came with cat doors already installed (or just cut out of the doors) so i'm not sure how they held out for so long, but i know they're going to have a great time with a little ball of fluff and energy running around. (ps. sylvia, update your blog!) (pps. or alan, maybe you should hijack it and update for her. she has exams afterall.)

9) should all lists end at 10? can i possibly have more to say? is this cheating? did i mention that i like to make lists?

10) yep, ran out of steam. plus, i really do have to get some work done. bah, responsibility!

Monday, April 23

list lengthening

we have a list of things that we need/want for the house. this list gets longer and longer and so when we get the chance to cross something off the list we feel a huge sense of accomplishment. we've already purchased (and installed) central vac and a garage door opener, two things that are pretty major in that they are costly and we use them often. but the list also has things that are smaller and less expensive. things like a broom for the garage/front porch. done!

but i feel like we will always have some sort of list. things that need to be done or need to be purchased. owning a house, even a new one, is like that.

one thing we need is seating in the dining room. we don't have a dining room table and chairs or stools for the counter. but on saturday, after helping s&l move into their (really nice) new house, i convinced j to stop at the stool store (honestly, this place has lots of stools). the stool store keeps really odd hours and so we've been twice before only to find the place locked up tight. but we went while the store was open and looked around at all the stools. we were really at a loss as to what would look good in our place. so we talked to a guy there and told him what we were thinking and the colours in our house. apparently this store lets you borrow stools to see what they look like at home. incredible! so away we went with two stools. we set them up at the counter and sat in them and looked at them and patted them... okay, i'm only kidding about the patting part... and figured out what worked and what didn't.

we went back yesterday, brought the stools back, and ordered two for us. we're happy because we're one step closer to having somewhere to sit to eat and i'm happy because we decided on a fun fabric. and, as luck would have it, the fabric is being discontinued and yesterday was the last day to get it. the guy had already thrown the sample in the garbage. it was that close.

enough stool talk? okay. after work friday, we went to the tire shop, a sponsor of the ottawa mazda club, to get the new wheels mounted on tires. after 2 hours we had the wheels mounted and on the car. the car is sexier than ever:

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j was super happy too because he got to take the new wheels to the first meet of the year. i'm sure he got glowing reviews because even the guys at the shop liked the wheels. after the meet, he met up with his work friends and did work-friend stuff. i was at home catching up on the hours and hours of pvr'd tv shows. i'm fun that way.

saturday we helped s&l move and then the stool stuff happened. saturday night i was super fun again and stayed home while j went out with the guys and sang karaoke at a korean internet cafe downtown for vlatko's birthday (happy birthday, vlatko!) i split my time between doing laundry, watching tv, internetting and making freezer paper stencils.

i made two onesies for a woman at work who's last day is tomorrow. she's having her second, a boy. hopefully she likes these:

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i have lots of ideas for more stencils and two more pregnant coworkers.

last night we had dinner with j's family. his uncle, who i hadn't seen in almost two years, was in town. there was a lot of reminiscing.

Friday, April 20

changes

before baseball season for the past 7 years i've always thought about not playing. but i always do because i always have. i've been playing since i was 3, maybe 4... for 23 seasons. baseball is what i do. baseball is what i'm good at (at least i like to think so).

but last night i quit.

my old team folded and some girls are looking for a team and i figured i could not play and not leave my team scrambling looking for players. but i feel sick. absolutely sick about it.

i'm really worried that i won't do anything with all my free time and then i'll feel like i wasted my summer. and i don't know what else to do. there are tons of things i could do but i don't know where to start. i'm feeling overwhelmed.

and sad because i just ended the thing that i've been doing longer than anything else. except breathing that is. did i do the right thing?

Tuesday, April 17

employee of the month gets new music

i had nothing to do last night. we got home from work and i jumped right away into comfy pants and after a little bit at the computer settled down in front of the tv. it was all part of the master plan to get to bed early. i saw the last bit of the manhattan project cause j was watching it and then we watched employee of the month with jessica simpson. with the exception of a line or three, it was a pretty bad movie.

instead of going to bed right after the movie, i went to update my ipod. i've had the same music for months and i'm tired of it. but i don't exactly know how to update anything so i showered and waited for j to come and help. sad, i know. but then end result is that i got a ton of new music and am happily listening away. but i didn't get to bed at a good time. it was after midnight when i turned out my light. ooops.

at least i have good tunes today.

Monday, April 16

lack of sleep and spring

ever notice how pretty the snow looks for the first couple of snowfalls of the season. you know, back in OCTOBER!! why is it snowing now? we've been through this. it's time for spring and time to move on. why is winter holding on? the snow isn't pretty this time of year. you know what's pretty? tulips and crocuses and whatever other flowers usually bloom in april.

let me tell you about my weekend. friday night i had my work hockey game. it was fun but painful. i got knocked down a couple of times - i'm sure it's just because of size though. i'm used to being the biggest player on the ice and not playing against big 240 pound guys who just have to bump into me and i go flying. also painful because i blocked a shot with my forearm, specifically my non-padded forearm. half the time i feel like my arm is broken. thankfully typing is in the other half.

we went out for beers afterward and i had a pint. i haven't had anything alcoholic in a long time. i don't even know when was the last time i drank. that's just not how i roll. so i had my pint and then switched over to diet pepsi, ate my salad, and talked and talked and talked. i got home around 1:30am.

i proceeded to sleep in until late saturday. saturday wasn't much of a day. we went to home depot because we had a gift card for there (thanks d&t!) and bought a garage door opener (now i don't have to jump out of the car when we get home) and then went to j's grandparent's place for swiss chalet.

i was going to run saturday, but it was late and dark by the time we got home and i convinced myself that running sunday would be okay.

sunday comes along, after about 13 hours of sleep, and so does the rain. come along i mean. it poured all day. ALL. DAY. so i vacuumed, watched some tv, hung out with j's mom (j's dad was helping j install the garage door opener), watched more tv, ate food, watched more tv and finally went to bed.

only four hours of sleep later i woke up this morning to tons of snow and a work day. i'm tired and a little grumpy and full of p&v apparently. and now i have to work.

Friday, April 13

our phones like to gossip

we needed a new cordless phone. this was a while ago. so we went to futureshop and picked out a nice one that came with two handsets. handy. then the guy at the cash asked if we had or were thinking of getting wireless internet. why yes, we answered, because we were thinking about it. eventually. so, he said, you really should get this phone instead. it was $10 or $20 more but wouldn't kick us off the internet if we were to get wireless. thanks, we said, we'll get it. and that's the story of us buying our phones. wow, never thought you would be so bored, eh? moving on. our phones can talk to each other. you press a little button and the other handset rings. it's called intercom or something. i tried it today for the first time and i couldn't stop giggling. see, our house is pretty little, and i was sure i could hear j all the way in the basement talking to me. well, i could hear him. through the phone. but i mean that i'm sure i could also hear him not on the phone. and that's the news about my phones and how they love to gossip. such girls.

Thursday, April 12

fancy and free

if i can get even one of you clicking each day, it's worth it: funding free mamograms. there are also links on the page (after you click the pink button, scroll down on the next page, there are similar buttons in different colours) for other things you can fund just by clicking on a button. it takes about 30 seconds a day. i do it every morning when i get into work. you should too.

i went running again last night. i powered through an insanely sleepy time, ate well and ran my 6K. i took j with me but he didn't last the whole 6, maybe only 3 or so. not sure, he took a shortcut that i haven't mapped out yet. the poor boy is sore and cranky.

i'm not all that sore but i'm starting to feel sick. i really hope it's just a little thing that will never develop into a full blown whatever or it's tiny and passes quickly. i'm thinking it has to do with the fact that it's mid-april and it's snowing. we can't deal with the hot then cold temperatures, nature, so smarten up!

i'm in a hockey pool and have to say that i did well last night. being in the pool is a weird feeling because it's like gambling - something i rarely do - and it's about hockey - something i never watch. so it's putting two things that i don't do/care about together and all of a sudden i want to know who scored last night. who did score last night?

this is a short week, the second in a row, but it already feels like a long week. anyone else get this feeling? is it because we have to cram 5 days of work into 4? (yes, some government jobs require actual work.) i don't know why it feels like this but it sucks. sucks the big bucks, like my coworker would say.

but tonight i get cake and tomorrow i get to play hockey and saturday i get to not go to toronto. good times.

Tuesday, April 10

random tuesday night thoughts

first, let me wish alan a happy birthday. i hope you had a really good day, alan. there just may be some cake in your future.

second, i keep thinking about easter and i always come back to the same sad story. when i was growing up, we weren't religious so easter meant only one thing: chocolate. we didn't have a lot of money and so our last easter egg hunt was not for chocolate. it was for nickels. my parents kept a change jar with all small change (this is before the loonie and twoonie) and so my dad hid however many nickels around the house. and we hunted with glee. and then we put the nickels back in the change jar. that was the last easter egg hunt i did as a child.

third, did i ever mention that i saw a coyote? we were driving into work one day maybe two weeks ago and i had gotten a ride home with some of j's coworkers the day before. they had told me about the wild turkeys you can sometimes see on the way home and that they'd heard there were also coyotes but had never seen one. so i'm telling him this story and right when i get to the part about the elusive coyote, i look over and see one, right near the side of the road. incredible! very wolf-like. i was thinking it would look more like a fox, but not so.

fourth, because i haven't been watching a lot of tv lately, the pvr is full of k-shows. i've been doing my best and watching when i can, but this means that i never ever watch live tv. i had no idea that prison break is done for the season! i found out after we watched the season finale this afternoon. i'm really not happy where they left off. the story is very up in the air, nothing was concluded. is that the point?

fifth, you would think i know better, but apparently i can still eat too much chocolate and give myself a stomach-ache. 26 years living with this body and that's what i do to myself. amazing.

catching up

easter to me means i get a long weekend. so i slept. lots.

thursday night was recovery night. my week was short - only three days - but it was long. friday night we went out with j's work friends. we had dinner at the outback and then played guitar hero. my forearm was killing me! saturday we had a housewarming party. thanks to everyone who came. sunday we had family dinner at j's grandparent's place and monday was a gym/shopping/running/watching tv day. we are now all up to date on 24 but not prison break because we're missing an episode.

boring! i'll give you a better post soon.

Friday, April 6

day 100

today is day 100 in my project 365. there have been some days that have been tough - no inspiration or time = no pictures. but most days i've been completely happy to tote around "my camera" (i've adopted our little point and shoot) and take pictures of things.

i'm actually quite happy with how this is working out. i'm finding i see more things. i'm always looking around and noticing things i wouldn't have seen before. and it's nice looking back through the 99 pictures to see what my life was like.

and then there are the flickr groups dedicated to the project where i've met some really nice people. it's interesting seeing pictures from all around the world. i've learned that what might seem uninteresting to me is something fresh and new to someone else. and maybe in a couple of years it may be fresh and new to me so i should try and capture it so i can have it forever. isn't that what pictures are for?

Thursday, April 5

gmaps pedometer

thanks to gmaps pedometer i know that i ran almost 4K today. that's a good start.

Wednesday, April 4

r.i.p. spider solitaire, you will be missed

someone was obviously paying attention to my thinly veiled cry for help and removed all games from the computer. now i can concentrate on blogging my life away.

absolute comedy was tonight. i am maybe a little in love with the mc. he was hilarious. and hot. such a good combo. thanks to everyone who came out. my baseball team appreciates your support.

tomorrow is essentially friday and i'm especially happy. even though it was a super short week for me with monday off and everything, it was a long week and this long weekend is a nice break. and i have good news: i will start running soon. the plan, which i formulated at work, had me start my 8-week half marathon training today, but i napped instead. off to a stellar start, my friends. stellar.

so now it's time to positive-think myself into running, even though it's raining and possibly flurry-ing out. i am going to start running and i am going to love it!

every runner needs goals (or so i've read) and here is my goal, with some background first. in may 2005, i ran my first race since highschool. it was a 5K and the longest i had ever run before. thankfully i am a moron and didn't realize the treadmill on which i was training was in miles and so i was training at 8K. the race was a breeze after that. last may i ran my second race, a 10K. again, the longest that i had ever run (seeing the trend yet?) and i was happy i finished. this year, the goal is to run a half marathon. and eventually, you guessed it, my goal is to run a full marathon. but i'll wait on the marathon for a bit. focus! so the half marathon that i'd like to run is sunday, may 27th, which is 8 weeks away, hence the 8-week training. and my only goal is to finish the race. i don't mind if i have to walk half of the 21.1K, i just want to finish.

so i guess now i really just have to get out there. wish me luck!

Tuesday, April 3

neglect

i promise that i am not neglecting this thing because of facebook. i'm neglecting my blog because of facebook AND other things. other things like flickr and spider solitaire (who invented spider solitaire anyways?) and work and sleep and eating and sports. imagine that.

that and i don't really have much to say. for a second time this post, imagine that.

i've been thinking lots lately about running. and biking. i miss both. my plan was to run a half marathon this year. back in 2005 i ran my first race. it was a 5K and i was happy with my time and the whole racing thing. then last year, i stepped it up and ran the 10K race. again, i was happy that i finished (and somewhat surprised at myself because, until that week, i had never run that far. ever.) and then i just fizzled out.

but that's going to change. i'm writing it here so i can't back out. i'm going to start running again. it's going to become my life. hello, new life! goodbye, couch potato batman.

Monday, April 2

wow

this was a long weekend. i worked 9-5 both days at the wedding show. it went well though and actually went by pretty quickly.

friday night was the make-up birthday night for a bunch of the girls on my ball team, including me. it was an exhausting week so i left before everyone went out to the bar. i had a good time though.

saturday night i stayed in and watched tv.

last night we had dinner at j's grandparents house.

and then today i slept in and spent the day doing house stuff. party this saturday!