Just passing by

Just popping in to apologize for not being here much lately.. I've been busy and will fill you in on all my adventures a bit later.. gotta get ready for work right now.. talk amongst yourselves while I'm gone people.

This is the year of the rennovations....

We have spent mega bucks on the house this year getting it the way we want it.. we're taking pictures of the house and all of the things we have installed or fixed up and are going to create a binder showing all that we have done.. in addition to being a great remembrance book it will be a way to document the improvements we have made to the place in case we were to sell it in the future (it better be waaaay in the future because I want to enjoy the place once it's completed)...

and in no particular order... Ron did/we had someone come in and do the following...
- Ron replaced the roof.. that was more than a little dangerous!
- Ron replaced the upstairs bedroom window
- our furnace went and we had to have it replaced
- we got a new water pressure tank for the well to increase the water flow
- we got a hole dug and a sump bucket installed for the new sump pump
- Ron redid over the whole interior of the house.. or at least 90% of it by..
- installed new laminate floors through most of the house
- painted or wallpapered the interiour
- the electrician installed a new breaker box to replace the old fuse box
- we bought a new electric hot water heater to be installed in the near future
- we have a new pellet stove
- Ron replaced the dining room, kitchen, downstairs bathroom and downstairs walk-in closet windows and has one for the den to replace
- Ron's in the process of putting new insulation and siding on the house
- We put blown in insulation in the lower attic
- since we moved in we replaced the washer, dryer and just got a new fridge
- we had the electrician install a new circuit upstairs so that we can run a heater in the winter if necessary
- Ron replaced the sink in the upstairs bathroom
- Ron built a little shed for the ride on lawnmower
- Ron did work on the old garage/workshop, insulated and replaced the roof as well as put in a wooden floor over the old clay floor

I think that's everything we've done so far..

what we want to do in the future is....
- replace the bathroom window and the upstairs other bedroom window
- put in a shower downstairs
- replace the stove
- replace the dishwasher
- redo the driveway
- install a water softener system
- do something about the basement
- fix the window by the back door **done**
- redo the floors in the main bedroom downstairs and do over the new bathroom
- replace the tub and toilet in the upstairs bathroom (that may not get done).

So our "to do" list is a lot shorter than our "done" list..

I'm too tired to try and arrange the wording over each picture.. lets just say that rain didn't dampen the spirits of this wedding.. there were lots of raincoats, umbrellas and DANCING!!! OH.. and kissing.. lol.

This is the view out our Motel window..

A little creepy but Aaron, always the optimist, said that they were probably lovely people buried there..

A Few Pics of the Wedding

First is Aaron and Richie saying their vows...























Then the two Janets lighting a candle for their sons (both mothers are called Janet!)
























This is Aaron and Richie.. they looks so happy... and CUTE!!















And these are the parets with the newlyweds.. my sister and her husband on the left and Richie's parents on the right...


*These photos are from Aaron's brother, Andy*

My Nephew's getting married next Saturday..

My Nephew's getting married next Saturday.. it's to be a momentous occasion for more than the usual reasons.. you see.. his fiance is Richie.. so it will be the first gay marriage in the history of our family..

It's to be my first same-sex wedding (that I'm attending, not participating in, not that I have participated in one either.. should I stop trying to explain myself.. because I'm even confusing me.. )..

Aaron has always been my favorite nephew *sorry to any of my other nephews that might also be reading my blog but life is hard so suck it up and deal with it* :/ I got to meet his fiance Richie who is just as sweet as Aaron. They seem to be made for each other because their personalities are so much alike.

Just a small observation, I was looking for a card for them the other day and I expected that it would be difficult to find one that didn't say "bride and groom" on it.. but I was pleasantly surprised.. the majority of them had the "happy couple" or words to that effect (happy couple - gay couple.. can you see the difference? I can't see the difference).

The only thing I'm a little worried about is the four to five hour drive and sleeping in a strange bed.. hope my back stays in alignment.

How much does it take to kill a bee?

Apparently a lot.. because we have bees in our wall that just won't go away.. Ron has sprayed enough bug spray to kill a horse but the danged bees just won't die.. he also sprayed expanding caulking in the hole where they were getting in but the old saying about bees being busy is true because they can get past the strongest deterrent known to man.. I have nightmares about the walls buzzing.. but tomorrow he's putting flashing all along the foundation so unless they have a blow torch or (what I'm afraid of) a back doorway into the basement.. we're good.. Plus it's too hot for my honey (pun intended) to be all decked out in beekeeper gear.

Two Weeks Vacation on the Way!!!

I just have to work today and then off for two weeks.. got Aaron and Richie's wedding in there, working on the house, a dentist's appointment and most importantly.. an appointment with my chiropractor... lol.. sorry guys but I'm in pain again so all that other stuff takes second place.. :(

Ron got the dining room window in with just four more windows to go after that.. once the windows are in the rest of the work should go quickly... I have to help next week with the blown in insulation but all I have to do is fill the hopper and Ron will be in the hot, stuffy attic doing the main work.. he's anxious to get that over with.

Our pellet stove will be delivered the last Monday in August.. and since we have 140 bags of wood pellets that should do us most of the winter and we have them piled in our front porch so we won't have far to go to get to them in the cold blustery winter days.. now we just have to get a generator in case the power goes off..

Ron's mother, sister and his son were here on Wednesday for a visit and his son, Raul, helped him with the window which was good because it was too heavy for me to lift.. now if we could just get some dry days to dry out the exposed slats of wood on the house before we apply the insulation and wrap... and it ain't looking good according to the long range weather forecast.. keep your fingers crossed.

My Tarot Card Deck is Complete...

I've finally gotten them done and to the printers and I'm so proud of how they turned out.. I also did some silky cloth bags to put them in and a hanging tag with the picture of my mystery card that is a feature unique to my deck as far as I know.. There is also a Bio card with a little blurp about me (it's that card in the front).. I got 10 decks printed and they are all sold or spoken for.. The name of the deck is latin and means "first time".. and since this is the first time I've created a deck it suits well..

Damn.. I can't get blogger to upload my pics for me.. I keep getting an error message.. I'll upload them tomorrow if I can..

My Other Hip is Better Now...

Guess I just overdid it on the house rennovations but yesterday when I went to work it had worked itself out and it didn't bother me the rest of the day... The hip with the sciatica is bothering me a bit this morning but I'm hopeing it's just that it's so blasted humid this morning.. at least we're getting a bit of rain to water the lawns.. it seemed like all the moisture was going to be hanging in the air for a while there..

I don't know if I mentioned it or not but Ron discovered a bee's nest under the shingles on the inside corner of the house on the back behind the oil tank.. so we just have a small strip of shingles to remove but we don't know how to get rid of those buzzing menaces.. at least they aren't getting into the house like they were last year.. he's going to go out today in full combat gear with bee keeper mesh clothes on over a couple of layers of clothes and pull the last row of shingles off.. they are tough little buggers and everything we threw at them so far has not eliminated them.. I know bees are good but not in your walls.. shudder.. and you might know it that the last two row of shingles have around eight big nails in them with numerous small nails as well.. I don't know WHAT they thought was going happen that they had to have so many nails in them.. obvious they didn't keep the bees away.. lol..

Figures.. the Chiropractor is on vacation for two weeks...

And my other hip locked up on my last night.. I can hardly walk... grrrrr... hopefully some ice and rest will have me moving again for work next week (make that tomorrow!!)... I hate getting old...

I think that I now know what hell feels like...

I think that I now know what hell feels like... it's been unusually hot and humid!!! And last night was the first night that it stayed hot until early this morning.. I hate heat at night.. (well, heat from the outside.. lol).. It has been too hot and humid to do anything around the house so the outside has remained partly stripped and partly shingles.. :(... Can't wait to get to the applying the new insulation and siding part but especially the new windows part.. We decided to go with an electric hot water heater for the domestic hot water and that, along with the pellet stove, should really decrease our dependance on the oil furnace..

I completed my deck of Tarot cards and it is at the printers as we speak, I went in and got a look at a completed deck yesterday and I'm stoked.. even tho' this first set of 10 decks will leave me in the red because of unexpected costs and buying a shitload of material to make drawstring bags for them.. I'm still excited to see my creation to it's final conclusion.. now if only I was a better sales person I could go out and sell them to some stores.. but I'm such a dweeb at that.. anyone have some sales experience that would be willing to go out and sell, sell, sell?.. *sigh*

My hip is still holding out and if the talk of a retirement package doesn't pan out at least I'm still holding out hope that I'll be able to hang on for the next three years until I'm 60...

Well, on the topic of bad choices... I dyed my hair on Monday... I thought it was a blackish color.. turns out it was burgundy black which looks like grape under certain lights.. and after a week I'm still getting dye stains on my towel when I wash my hair... well we live and learn.. with me, sometimes the hard way.. but I'm getting my hair cut today so I'm going for short and sassy so I'm hoping this old bird can pull it off.. if I don't have my glasses on I look really pale but once I put on my metallic red glasses then it brings the color back into my cheeks.. so what I think is.. it's only hair.. it will grow back into my natural color.. and I always can redye it.. lol... I never learn do I?... phhhtttt...

There was a hold up with the renovations

We thought that we would be farther along in the renovations than we are because we both ended up with strep throat and had to go on antibiotics.. groan.. but we're all better now and I'm off this week and can help with removing the shingles on the back and end of the house... we're going to be careful to wear some kind of a mask when removing the shingles and whatever's below it because of the dead flies and all kinds of yucky stuff that's under the old shingles.. ewwww.. I think that may have contributed to us feeling so miserable.. I can't wait to get going on everything but I don't like the look of the weather forecast.. it says rain until Thursday.. figures... I'm off this week.. grrrr.. but the weather here changes from hour to hour so we may be able to get a lot done anyway.

More pictures of the renovations

I have lots of pictures of the renovations in it's various stages..

Here we see Ron slaving away removing the shingles to discover a black, feltlike material below.. so the air leaks were not coming from the area of the shingles..


Another picture of Ron working away (don't you just love to see a man all sweaty?.. lol


This is a view of the front of the house and that's what the whole house will look like once it's done, all nice and green and neat with new windows and everything..


This is what we discovered once we took the black felt stuff off.. white clapboard siding.. so the walls themselves were really tight so the air leak must have been coming from the windows themselves.. there will be a world of difference once we get the new windows installed. I can't wait.


This is our pile of insulating foamboard and other stuff for our renovations.. I'm nervous about having it laying around the yard like that because it's really expensive stuff and I would hate for it to get stolen...!!!!

I'm excited about life again.

I'm so excited. My pain is leaving at a fast rate and I managed to work the whole week last week (I have this week off for holidays, nice to be off and feeling well). Who would have thought that after only two sessions that I would improve to the extent that I have. I may have to go to him on a regular basis from this point forward but if it keeps the pain away then I'm all for it. Yesterday we went to pick up some things in Charlottetown and we were walking around for quite a while and while we were walking I was pain free. Now once I sat back down into the car is when the pain started but it bothered me just for a few moments when I first sat down. I still have a bit of pain in the morning when I first get up but if it's bad I just put some ice on it off and on for 20 minutes or so and then I'm fine. If the pain isn't too bad I just walk around for a while and it works itself out.

It feels so good to have a positive outlook again.

There is hope for the future now...

Just a quick update on how I'm doing.. after only two sessions with the chiropractor I have improved immensely.. I wish that I had gone to him first instead of to physiotherapy.. we live and learn..

He was able to get my xrays of my lower back and he said that I have some bone wear and tear in my lower back where it attaches to the hip bone area especially on the right side probably caused by a degenerative bone condition.. they still don't have the second set of xrays back yet and it's been over two months.. sigh... He explained the xrays to me and showed me on a model of the spine what the problem is and took the time to explain it in a way that I could understand...

Now that he has straightened my spine out I can walk for longer distances without pain and he wants me gradually to increase the movement in that area so that I can build some strength back into the right leg.. I'm not as depressed about the whole thing and I'm hopeful that I don't have to go on long term disability and that I'll be able to work for the next three years until I'm 60 (in fact that will be exactly three years from today which is my birthday!!).

OUR RENOVATIONS

Ron has been working like a demon trying to get the renovations done on our house and now he's got my strep throat so he'll have to slow down a bit. These are some before pictures.

First my ills and then some renovation news.

For a cherry on top of the ills I've been having I discovered on Friday that I have Strep Throat... throat was scratchy on Thursday and I had a headache and was feeling a bit nauseous. By Friday my throat was red raw and I could only talk in a croak so off to the walk-in clinic to get mega doses of antibiotics (making sure there were no sulfa derivatives) and in no time my throat was feeling much better but my nether regions are a rumbling mess because of the side effects of the drugs (may cause diarrhea.. no kidding!!). Oh.. and to make it perfect, Ron just got it as well.

Everything is up in the air as far as finding out about my hip is concerned, the xrays that were taken about two months ago still haven't been read and my appointment with the specialist isn't until December so I'm really at a loss what to do. My sick time is running out so if I go on long term disability I have to wait 119 days for it to kick in and use up my sick time first. If I don't have enough sick time to carry me the 119 days (which I don't) then I will have to go on sick unemployment which is only 55% of my wages in the interm (LTD is 70%).. We're in the process of doing some MAJOR rennovations on our house to make it more energy efficient so I'm feeling a little desperate here on what to do.

People have been giving me all kinds of advice and the main suggestions have been a chiropractor and/or acupuncture. Not knowing what the problem is exactly, I'm cautious about trying something so drastic but I'm running out of options. Now enough about the complaining already.. I have pictures of the start of our renovations to follow.

More complaining.. then some good news!!

First off the complaining.. I've been so down with the constant pain in the ass.. literally .. of the sciatic problems that today when I went to the doctor to get a note for work I ended up in tears. The poor doctor didn't know what to do... my hip xrays still haven't come back and it's been a month. I started physio again and I really don't find too much of a change since I started back but they were talking about trying acupuncture on me next time. One thing: I DO have an appointment with the specialist.. but not until DECEMBER!!! (One side effect is that the time doesn't fly by as quickly now even tho' I'm getting so much older by the day.. lol).. reminds me it's birthday time next month.. the big 57.. how many years till retirement?...

Anyway, back on track again with my thoughts... the doctor gave me three perscriptions today.. one for pure codeine.. one for a stool softener to counteract the binding problem with codeine.. and an anti-biotic for a urinary tract infection.. that one I was leery about taking because of my recent bout of Steven-Johnson's syndrome.. but she assured me that this would not have the same results.. we'll just have to see about that.. hmmmm.. *keeps fingers crossed while we wait on that one*.

I'm off work until I get back to see her next week.. I took one of the codeine tablets and I'm feeling a little woozy so forgive the typos.. and the rambling thoughts.

Now what was the good news again?... Oh yeah, even though I'm not even finished designing my Tarot deck and I don't know how much I'm going to be able to sell them for I've already got about 10 decks sold and most of them are going to Australia and in England a friend of mine is going to approach 4 different shops to take a deck on consignment just to see if they will sell. I have to get my butt in gear (now that hopefully there will be less pain) and got a cd over to the printer with a couple of card designs on and a backing for them to print off some cards for me. Then I can get an idea of what the finished product will look like.. I have to tell them the size and quantity before they can work out a quote. Hopefully they won't be way out of whack with the price because I want to make at least some profit.. And I even have some ideas on more decks.

Well I really should go lie down before I fall down.. will keep you up to date on stuff later if anyone is interested.