My weight plateau..

I find myself at a plateau.. I can't seem to break the 170 pound mark to move into the next 10 pound bracket.. I fluctuate between 170 and 172 depending on the time of day.. I would advise you never to weigh yourself right after getting out of the bath.. it's amazing how much water your skin soaks up.. From some of my Weight Watchers meetings I realised that all along I was in the wrong mind set like a lot of people that try different weight loss methods and fail... I had focused on the amount of weight I could lose over the course of a week so that I sometimes would not eat until after the weigh-in (and then proceed to go out to a fast food place after the meeting because I was so hungry.)..

Now I think about the long range plan and how to not only get the weight off but to maintain my way of eating so that I don't put it back on again.. that is such a major breakthrough in my thinking (and excuse me if I keep repeating it) that I find that there is no major struggle and I've been eating healthy for so long that it's just second nature.. and if I over eat like a I did at Christmas and gain 3 pounds then I don't throw in the towel and say "what's the use, I can't do this!"... instead I say.. "I enjoyed myself and now it's back on track".. not that I don't enjoy myself eating healthy and I find that the foods I really craved like sweets are not as attractive to me any more.. and I find that I can take a little sliver of cake instead of two or three huge pieces.. but I know myself well enough to know that I can't have a lot of that stuff in the house.. I'm not a complete fool.. lol.

My partner,Ron, had lost about the same amount of weight that I have, he cooks supper every night and we shop together and he's keeping an eye on his weight as well.. between us we have lost over 4o pounds and when we hug now our arms go further around each other. Ron has been off the cigarettes for over a year now and I'm so proud of him. Even our dog had lost some weight.. but she's such a hog about food that she eats the bread crumbs that we throw out for the birds.. ppphhttt... little piggy poodle.. haha.

A Lesson in Not Reading Medical Journals

I'll set this up for you.. on Thursday I went to the doctor with a urinary tract infection (again) and was perscribed a sulfa drug to treat it.. that night I started to notice my mouth was a bit tender and the next day I noticed little spots starting and thought, great I'm getting thrush again.. over the weekend the sores got worse and all under my tongue was beet red.. hmmm I thought that's not good.. also I had a couple of red rash like spots on my body and I was feeling nauseous and headachy.. and my eyes were burning slightly.. also right hip is aching like crazy..

I phoned my doctor's office yesterday and she's not in on Tuesdays but the receptionist gave me an appointment for today.. (which is a coincidence because the receptionist is for the other doctor in the office and she said she usually doesn't answer my doctor's phone).. anyway I went into the doctor's office and when I described my symptoms she excused herself from the office to go check her medical journal (my first clue that something was amiss) and she told me that she didn't think I had thrush but that I had a rare condition called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome... having not heard of this condition before I didn't know if I should panic or what but when she told me she wanted to see me again on Monday I knew that it wasn't all sunshine and roses.. she also told me if the rash spots spread or get like blisters or if I get a fever to get to the hospital right away.. hmmm that doesn't sound too good.. she also told me that if I do have Stevens-Johnson Syndrome it was a rare reaction to the sulfa drugs and to tell my pharmacist to put a note on my file not to perscribe that to me ever again.. also if that's what I have I would be the first patient she has ever seen with it..

She also scheduled me to go in and have my hip xrayed.. but as luck would have it the power went out just as I was changing into the lovely gown and after sitting for half an hour and being told the power outage was Island wide (they were running on auxillary power and didn't run all their xray machines and nonessential equipment until they got full power) well I decided to take my paper work and go home to come back maybe tomorrow to get the xray done..

So I toddle on home feeling like shite and our power is out so I couldn't get onto the net to check out this condition to see what it might be.. it would have been better if the power had not come on because when I did read up on it it scared the bejesus out of me ... this condition can be fatal or can cause blindness .. both which are states of being that I would rather not consider.. especially the death part.. but hopefully if that is what it is then it was caught in time and I can carry on with life as normal.. whatever normal means at any particular time .. lol..

Come to think of it the last time I took this particular medication I had the mouth sores too and passed it off as thrush mouth and even went to the walk in clinic and that's what the doctor there contributed it to.. but that time I didn't have the rash or other symptoms... and I survived that time so maybe I haven't developed a full fledged allergic reaction .. I'll keep you posted on how the appointment goes on Monday.. keep your fingers crossed that now that I've stopped taking the drug that the symptoms will clear up in a few days..

I have something of my mother's

I discovered something else about myself as I was looking at that picture of myself.. beside the fact that it's not the most flattering picture of me.. was that I have my mother's hands.. when did that happen?.. I have my mother's hands, my sister's voice and her face as well, my father's talent for painting.. what the hell is mine?.. or do I really want to know..

We tend to measure ourselves by other people's measuring sticks.. and in our own minds we never quite stack up.. why is that?

Self Discovery

As you can see I've updated my weight chart and to this point I've lost 21 pounds (that may be a thing of the past when I get weighted in tomorrow.. I ate sooo much on the weekend at the family get together.. groan.. )..

I've lost 5 pounds in the last two weeks alone.. I think that I've finally clicked into the fact that this is a lifelong thing. Not something to do until I lose X number of pounds but something that's from now on.. and know what.. I'm ok with that. I find I'm looking at the bigger picture now (excuse the pun) and even if I gain a bit I know that I can take it off and more.. I've been lucky that my gains have been small when I've been "bad" as far as eating like I used to.

I also think that my body is getting used to this lower weight and when I overeat it isn't as quick to gain the weight back.. and as I also discovered.. my stomach has shrunk so that when I overeat like I did on Sunday I suffer the consequences for at least a day afterwards.. seriously, it wasn't a pretty picture... and at least on my scales.. I've put on a good 2 pounds to top it off.. but I'm not letting that put me off track.. I know now that I can do it so there's no excuses.. lol..

I started Weigh Watchers on May 07/2007. My starting weight was 193.4 pounds and since I'm only 5 ft 2 inches tall the most I should weigh is 137 according to the WW chart. So I had 56.4 pounds to lose. I started on the point system and now I'm on the core plan.

week 1 193.4
week 2 193.4 - 189 = 4.4 lbs LOST*
week 3 189 - 186.6 = 2.4 lbs LOST*
week 4 missed this meeting
week 5 186.6 -186.8 = +.2 lbs gained
week 6 186.8 - 183.6 = 3.2 lbs LOST*
week 7 183.6 - 181.6 = 2 lbs LOST*
week 8 181.6 - 182.4 =+.8 lbs gained
week 9 182.4 - 181.8 = .6 lbs LOST*
week 10 181.8 - 179.8 = 2 lbs LOST*
week 11 179.8 - 182= +2.2 lbs gained
week 12 182 - 179.8 = 2.2 lb. LOST*
week 13 179.8 - 179.2 = .6 lb LOST*
week 14 179.2 - 180.4 = +1.2 lbs gained
week 15 180.4 - 180.2 = .2 lb LOST*
week 16 180.2 - 178.6 = 1.6 lbs LOST*
week 17 178.6 - 178.8 = +.2 lbs gained
week 18 178.8 - 179.8 = +1 lb gained
week 19 179.8 -180.4 = +.6 lb gained
week 20 180.4 - 178.8 = 1.6 lbs LOST*
week 21 178.8 - 178.6 = .2 lb LOST*
week 22 178.6 - 177.8 = .8 lb LOST*
week 23 177.8 - 177.6 = .2 lb LOST*
week 24 177.6 - 176.8 = .8 lb LOST*
week 25 176.8 - 176.8 = same
week 26 176.8 - 177.2 = +.4 lb gained
week 27 177.2 - 177.4 = +.2 lbs gained
week 28 177.4 - 175 = 2.4 lbs LOST!!*
week 29 175 - 172.4 = 2.6 lbs LOST!! (5 LBS IN TWO WEEKS)


to date a total of 21 lbs lost..
56.4 to lose at start - 21 = 35.4 lbs to go..

I was informed I'm going to hell

My niece, when informed of my plans to make my own Tarot deck, told me that, of course, I was going to hell. I have a couple of sisters who have found God, God lovem' (well, according to them He indeed does). And all sorts of bad habits or lifestyles I practice are to be my damnation. But my way of thinking is that if they think that their God will forgive them for their past indiscretions, then my present indiscretions will eventually be in my past so that all I have to do is play the waiting game and all will be forgiven.. that's my plan at least.

Have been designing my own Tarot cards.. See below.

I've been designing my own Tarot cards in the last little while but I think that I need to get away from the computer for a while because I'm finding it hard on my eyes lately. But I also would like to be more creative with my hands instead of with my mind and since my eyesight is getting too poor for counted cross stitching ever again I would suspect, I thought that rock painting would be in order.. I'll attach some of the Tarot cards here, so far I've created 8 out of a deck of 72 so I have a ways to go.

Who is that dweeb?

I left my partner, R. a voice message the other day and as I was listening to it to see if we had any other messages I realised that my voice sounds different coming from a place outside my head.. and let me tell you, it's not a nice melodic sound like I imagined, but a nasally, whiny, sounds-just-like-my-sister voice.. *shudder*.. when I pointed out to R. that I sounded like my sister L. he said "Yeah, I know" because, I guess, if my voice was coming at him from out of my head and not into my head, he could tell the difference... I further thought "and you're still with me?".. another mystery...

I remember when my, now 13 year old, granddaughter was a baby I videotaped myself laying on the floor and talking to her in babytalk.. I repeated Brrrrrittany, over and over again until I wanted to rip my own tongue out by it's roots.. I think I might have scarred the poor thing for life... I can't stand to look at that video to this day..

Now every time that I talk, especially on the phone, I can hear my own voice.. very distracting and disconcerting to say the least, and sometimes I'm so engrossed in listening to myself talk *and not in the usual good way*, I lose track of what I was saying.

week 1 193.4
week 2 193.4 - 189 = 4.4 lost
week 3 189 - 186.6 = 2.4 lost
week 4 missed this meeting
week 5 186.6 -186.8 = .2 gained
week 6 186.8 - 183.6 = 3.2 lost
week 7 183.6 - 181.6 = 2 lost
week 8 181.6 - 182.4 = .8 gained
week 9 182.4 - 181.8 = .6 lost
week 10 181.8 - 179.8 = 2 lost
week 11 179.8 - 182 = 2.2 gained
week 12 182 - 179.8 = 2.2 lost

Are you noticing the same pattern I am???.. hmmm .. interesting..

My weight loss journey... continued...

I started Weigh Watchers on May 07/2007. My starting weight was 193.4 pounds and since I'm only 5 ft 2 inches tall the most I should weigh is 137 according to the WW chart. So I had 56.4 pounds to lose. I started on the point system and now I'm on the core plan.

week 1 193.4
week 2 193.4 - 189 = 4.4 pounds lost
week 3 189 - 186.6 = 2.4 pounds lost
week 4 missed this meeting
week 5 186.6 -186.8 = .2 pounds gained
week 6 186.8 - 183.6 = 3.2 pounds lost
week 7 183.6 - 181.6 = 2 pounds lost
week 8 181.6 - 182.4 = .8 pounds gained
week 9 182.4 - 181.8 = .6 pounds lost
week 10 181.8 - 179.8 = 2 pounds lost
* yeah I broke the 180 mark!!!*
so as of today I've lost a total of 13.6 pounds which is an average of 1.4 pounds a week.

I've done so well that I've been able to discontinue one of my diabetic medications (with my doctor's blessings of course) and my goal is to discontinue my other.

My way of thnking is that this is going to be a new way of living.. not just a diet and this is a new way of thinking for me.

I'm determined to reward myself for each 5 pounds with a smaill reward and a larger one for each 10 pounds.
When I lost my first 10 pounds I got a haircut.

I'll use this medium to keep myself honest.

Weight Watcher is going well..

I've lost 11.6 so far and I go for a weigh in tonight so I'm hoping that it will be more.. on my own scales I've lost but you never know with those cheap scales if they're accurate or not.

My way of looking at it now is that I'm in this for life, literally.. I've been able to come off of one of my medications for diabetes (with my doctor's blessings of course) and she said I should work towards being strictly diet controlled which is entirely possible if I take off the weight. My arthritis will be more relieved if I take off more weight.. I tend to carry my weight around my wasteline so if I can reduce that it will help me to not be off balance because of the weight on the front (now if I could only get the lower belly weight to move around to the nonexistant butt I'd be happy).

We should hear very soon about our reclass and if it went through.. it's been about a year of work on this and I think they're going to offer us something but what is the question. It's rediculous but I've been thinking a lot about retiring lately and I can't wait for it to happen.. It's going to be torture for the next 5-6 years if I don't stop!!! Maybe I just need a vacation.. another six weeks to go.

My garden is doing great and will post some pictures later. I bought a stargazer lily last week and I can't wait for it to bloom.. well gotta run and get ready for work and weigh in tonight.. wish me luck on both counts.

I'm almost to my 10 pound loss!!!

Just .2 of a pound to go, I've lost 9.8 pounds and once I reach the magical 10 pound mark I'm going to celebrate by getting myself a short, sassy haircut. So hopefully it will be next week because frankly my hair is driving me nuts and I feel like cutting it myself but R (bless his heart) gently told me the last time I butchered my hair that it probably would be better to invest the money into going to hairdresser. Who am I to argue?

My Weight Watcher Journey.. pt 2

I decided to go on the core plan on ww.. in it you eat whole foods like fresh fruit and vegetables, whole wheat pasta, lean meats etc.. You don't count points but you restrict yourself to the core foods and eat only until you are satisfied so you learn to listen to your body and know when you're full...

I'm really enjoying it and since I gained a little, .2 of a pound last week I decided that the points system is not really what I want to do. I'm excited about it because I think that I may have reached to 10 pound mark and to treat myself if I did do it I'm going to invest in a haircut. And plan to buy myself something at each 10 pound mark..

You're Never Too Old To Be Surprised.

These pictures in no way do the scene any justice.

I drive on the same road every day to go to work. I had thought that I had seen everything that there was to see. Although the scenery is beautful in every season here in Prince Edward Island you come to take it for granted. But last week I happened to glance to my right and lo and behold I saw a wonderul, colourful sight before my eyes. A whole field planted with tulips. As a backdrop to a newly plowed Island field in it's red clayed glory, the tulips took on a glow and I imagined I could smell their perfume on the gentle breeze. Now my drive finds me alert to new sights and that makes my mornings more alive.

Ahhh the smell of eww'da Skunk in the morning

Why is it that I tend to awaken in the morning to the odor of skunk? Is it past carma coming back to extract its revenge? And since my cat tends to spend her nights out of doors I'm always a little afraid to let her back into the house since she tends to repeat her bad habit of "playing" with the skunks, perhaps in an effort to make friends? Also, she tends to sleep on my pillow (the cat, not the skunk, although sometimes it's hard to tell but this morning she just smelled like cat). And this morning the humidity lent to the pungent intensity outdoors. Living in the country ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Nature tends to interrupt my sleep lately, from roving skunks to marauding raccoons that are impervious to methods of discouragement like bright lights and loud noise. Sunday night I awoke to loud, weird noise, much like the sound in the city of teenagers driving around with their car radios blaring in the middle of the night. Turns out this was a raccoon giving my cat a piece of it's teeny tiny mind and my cat standing her ground, stupid but brave. I turned on all manner of lights thinking niavely that it would send the raccoon running but no, it stood in my driveway defiant and didn't leave until I yelled at it for a few moments.

Well off to work I go hie ho.

More childhood memories

OUR FAMILY HOME

I was born in 1951 so when I was a child we didn't have inside plumbing or electicity. I remember doing my homework by lamp light (which I contribute to causing my eyesight to be bad), we never played in the house no matter what the season. In the summer we played outside using pieces of broken pottery as dishes, our yard didn't have a lawn, just packed dirt so we would make outlines in the dirt to represent the rooms of our dream house and would play there for hours at a time, we used our imagination to create all kinds of wonderful realities.

I come from of family of 14 children so we never had a shortage of playmates, either my siblings or our friends. We didn't have much but neither did our friends so we thought we were rich.
In the winter we would skate, toboggan and sleigh down the hills near our home, make forts in the snow and snow people. In the winter was the only time we would have jello or great homemade frozen fudgesickles made from coco drink set outside in the snowbank and frozen. We had no electicity and our fridge that we used in the summer had a big block of ice that we bought from the ice truck that made the rounds.

I remember always having a garden to grow our own fresh vegetables and we got baby chicks at Easter that made it onto our table for Thanksgiving but we accepted that as part of life. I remember gathering eggs from our laying hens and taking them, still warm, into our mother to cook for breakfast. We didn't live in the country but our town was pretty small back then and we knew all our neighbours.

There was a pickling plant near our home and we would go there and collect the rejected cucumbers that our mother would make into our own pickles and so I guess we did our own recycling.. lol. My mother always made her own bread, biscuits, and deserts. We didn't have a lot but we were never hungry.

We lived in a small house that is no longer standing (there's a Sobey's built on the land where we used to live. Imaging all us kids in this small little house. It only had three bedrooms, one for our parents, one for the girls and one for the boys. Although there would have never have been 14 kids in the house at one time, I think at the most there would have probably have been 9 or so. Our mother would get up early in the morning and get the wood/coal stove going so that the kitchen would be warm for the crew to get up from their warm beds. I remember as a child, on a cold winter night, our mother warming bricks to place at the foot or our beds, under the blankets, to keep our feet warm.

I also remember that at Christmas we would each get only one toy and we would be so excited to receive an orange or a Red Delicious apple in our sticking with a few hard candies and though we were in heaven. So how was your childhood?

This is the most amazing dog I have ever seen. You cannot believe that this dog would even be alive let alone walk..

Summer memories...

Summer to me meant playing Red Rover, marbles in the dirt, hop scotch, picnics on the beach (my older sister cooked a hamburger soup with sea water that was to die for.. I think the salt air sharpened our appetites.. you wouldn't dare use sea water to cook nowadays would you?), hide and seek, standing under a tree in a lightening storm (what were we thinking?), the stange light after a freak storm, making mud pies with flower for decorations (yummy), the smell of clothes dried in the sun, swimming in the warm Atlantic waters until our fingers were all wrinkly and then dripping water on our protesting parents as they lay in the sun on a blanket... ahhh summer.

Wow.. time sure flies when you're living your life...

The last time I checked in with you I was waiting for the call from the hospital about the catscan.. well they called and I went in and fortunately the stones have passed although it took a few days for the infection to go because of the grinding and scraping of the stones on the way out.. I know ... owwwy... and it was quite painful. But all better now..

I have started walking with my sister L. once again.. I'm on the quest for weight loss.. joined Weight Watchers.. have a bunch of weight to lose and I need to be going to the meetings in order to keep myself honest (with myself most of all). I lost 4.4 lbs the first week and 2.4 pounds that second week for a total of 6.8 pounds in two weeks. I'm suspecting that I won't have lost any weight this week for some reason. Well, I know what the reason is, I haven't been keeping track of my points on paper, just in my head, and you know how that can get.... Oh well, we'll see how much, if any, I've lost on Wednesday when I go to the meeting and if I lost, great.. if I didn't I'll get strict with keeping a points book.. otherwise I'll just keep going as I am.. I should try the core plan where you can only eat certain foods but you don't have to keep track of points. I'll keep you informed of how I do.

I've been trying to get my heart shaped garden all weeded out.. why is it that grass can grow so well in my garden but not so well on the lawn where you want it to grow?.. although this year the lawn is doing better as well... As you can see by the photos above, I've been working up the edge of the garden so that the rocks show around the edges. The rocks were buried under grass and so you couldn't tell where the edge of the garden was and the lawn began. I'm a bit stiff from working on the garden and my wrists are a bit sore from using the garden weasle.. but I now have it 2/3 of the way done and it's coming along really well... will post photos once it's all done...

Waiting for the call...

I'm waiting for the call from the hospital... I'm hoping that the stone/s have passed through and that I'm on the mend.. I know they caused some irritation in my kidney because of the pain and the fact that I'm on antibiotics... and when you're diabetic one of the worse things you can hear is that there's a problem with your kidneys... so for a few days I was running blind with fear... that on top of the pain... but the pain is easing so that I don't have to constantly be on the tylenol and have been able to go for longer periods awake which is good.. so I guess I'm on the mend... here's crossing my fingers that the stones passed when I was sleeping... and zonked out on pain killers...

Oh.. by the way.. I'm still on Weight Watchers...

Even through the pain I'm still doing well... in fact I'm feeling ill and don't feel like eating too much any way... it's an ill wind that doesn't blow some good your way... lol..

Not sore from being out of shape....

Well, on Friday I went to work still feeling sore.. I had been thinking it was a pulled muscle but it really didn't feel like one (I've had pulled muscles before so I can recognise them).. for one thing it didn't hurt to move in different directions but it hurt like hell if I took a deep breath... well as I said I went to work but around noon time I was so sore, sick and with such a headache that I decided I had better call my doctor to see if she could squeese me in.. well, I discovered my doctor doesn't work on Fridays and the walk in clinics were closed but I was feeling so rotten that I had to do something and that something was to face the probable all day wait at the emergency room at the hospital..

The pain was in the right side about mid way down... and since I'm a diabetic and had a brother how lost his kidneys to a disease that could be genetic I decided that it was worth the wait.. all in all it took about 5 hours and the doctor sent me for xrays and took a urine sample... turns out I have kidney stone... and DAMN they hurt.. the doctor said I also have a low grade fever probably caused by infection starting in my kidney from the stones... the xrays weren't 100% positive so he said the hospital will contact me in a couple of days to come in for a scan to determine exactly what I have... well I can tell you it's stones... owwwwyyyy...

But worse than the pain from the stones (I shouldn't say worse because that pain is horrendous) is how sick I get from taking Tylenol3 with codine and antibiotics... this is one sore, sick puppy.. do you all feel sorry for me now?

Day 3 and counting... lol...

I got through today without breaking my diet.. made for sure I had enough food on hand that I could eat.. but unfortunately my back is killing me so no walk today.. I'm not sure what the problem is, but when you're out of shape like I am you can easily pull a muscle and I believe that is what I did yesterday by walking for too long.. I really should have eased into it but being the all or nothing person I am I decided to walk for an hour... now my body is protesting and I wasn't able to go for my walk today at all (but since it's after 1 am I guess that would be yesterday).. I went to bed right after supper to rest and didn't get up until around 11 pm so I'm awake, sore and thinking I really should get back to bed...

Day Two of Weight Watchers

Ohhhh Gawwwwd I was hungry today... so on the way home I picked up some fruit and some salad makings.. tomorrow I'm not going to let myself get so danged hungry... I've been walking yesterday and this morning and boy am I sore.. my back is killing me.. so tomorrow I'll have to take it easy or I'll be twice as sore.. it sure sucks getting old!!!.. but I keep thinking that if I can get some of this excess weight off that I will be a lot less sore... well I'm off to do some more reading of the material I got on the Monday night meeting... and will be making a grocery list for when we go grocery shopping on Friday or Saturday... bbye for now.

Got the dreaded call from the doctor...

I went in for blood tests at the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago and when I went back a week later the results some of my blood tests came back and my overall blood sugar totals for the 3 month time frame was 7.4.. in the high normal and my doctor said she'd call me when she got the rest of the results back only if there was something that needed to be addressed.. well, yesterday I got the call. I have to go and see her to go over the final results and I have a feeling it's not because I'm doing so great.. so before I go to see the doctor I'm going to join Weight Watchers yet again.. I did well the last time I joined and lost around 12 to 13 pounds and then we bought this house in the country and I couldn't afford the cost of the meetings.. now we're in a better place financially and I figure if I can get down to my goal weight of 135 to 140 then I can probably get off most of my diabetes medications and save there plus once you're on maintenance you don't have to pay to go to the monthly meetings.. so an initial cost will translate in to savings in money and health... a win win situation.. and R's good at being willing to eat healthy with me and so that's half the battle.. so wish me luck.

*yawn*.. is it morning yet????

I went to bed at a quarter to 8 last night to read and thought that I'd get a couple of hours reading before I fell asleep.... wrong!! I was asleep by 8pm and couldn't drag myself out of bed when my daughter called at 9pm... also had a hard time getting up at 5:30, my usual wakeup time, so I hit the snooze until almost 6 am... As my late mother used to say "I must have needed the sleep.. ".. well duh. Why the hell do I feel like crap this morning after all that sleep.. or is it because of all that sleep?

Speaking about my mother.. she used to ask my why I never wanted to go to bed.. and I think she hit the nail on the head when she questioned.. "Are you afraid you might miss something?".. I'm like that ... I'm afraid I might miss life as it whizzes by when I'm asleep.. I guess I want to live every minute and not waste it sleeping... Living in the country I usually try to get up between 5:30 and 6:00 each morning but when I sometimes have to force myself to go to bed by 10 0r 11 pm.. that doesn't make for a lot of sleep...

I'm now on FaceBook...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=650620416 check it out.. I'm just learning how it all works.

Who Let the Dogs Out???

No, I'm not going to sing that terrible song but I know it's now stuck in your head.. you can thank me later.. here is the aforementioned Shitzu with the sleepers on.. he's a weird enough looking doggy with the terrible bite (his bottom jaw is jutted forward) but the added sleepwear ... well, I dunno... and on the bottom is our little butterball.. she really is a poodle.. I promise... and she's been on a diet.. I promise... and she has lost weight.. double promise.. I still say she's not fat.. she's fluffy..

Easter's Almost Over

Well that was an interesting day... we left this fair Island yesterday to clear skies and narry a flake of snow on the ground or otherwise.. only to be greeted this morning on our way back from an Easter trip to Amherst, Nova Scotia to see R's family by white outs and terrible driving in spots.. the trip from Amherst to the Confederation Bridge was not too bad with clear roads and a very little amount of drifting snow.. but once we cleared the bridge and got into North Tryon it was a whole new kettle of fish .. it didn't help that we had a car in front of us that was making the whole experience that much worse and almost made us get stuck a few times because they were driving so slow... but we made it in one piece only to arrive at our driveway to find it packed with snow.. and R finally got to use his snow blower on some real substantial snow.. made him feel like a man!!!

On another topic.. R's sister has a young little Shitzu dog (don't know if that's the right way to spell it but you get the picture) that had his little weewee snipped... well, R's son had told them to put a diaper on the dog so he wouldn't try to get at the incision... that didn't work needless to say because it was too uncomfortable.. so J (R's sister) bought the dog two baby nightshirts with the flap that goes between the legs and snaps on the front and sides.. once they got the hole cut for the tail they had him all set.. looked a little strange but it did the trick and that's the point I guess .. but I think that he will be traumatised because she took him in public like that!!!! Poor little pouchy...

'Tis the Season....

Ello... nottin' on TV so thought I'd spill some brains out here...

I know .. I have few enough so it's not good to be wasting them.. but TV sucks the big one tonight and I've lost my taste for Poser for a while... I've been downloading so much stuff for my Poser program that if I don't stop my brand new computer will grind to a halt because it will be so jammed full of "stuff"...

The above picture is of a sewing/craft centre that R got me a couple of weeks ago.. he got me a sewing machine before Xmas because he was tired of having his pant cuffs dragging on the floor and his mother lives too far away to take the pants over to her.. That unit is really neat, the front, big door swings open and there's a leaf hanging down on the left of the unit that lifts up and the door, when fully open, goes under it to hold it up making a large work surface... the smaller door opens to reveal three shelves and there is a large shelf behind the large door to place your sewing machine... over all a great piece so furniture and the beauty of it is that you can close it all up when you're done and wheel it out of the way...

I finally got the sewing machine to work properly and I was even able to hem some blue jeans.. they are the worst things to hem because they are so damned thick!!! And I got a huge pile of pants hemmed and my next project is the drapes/curtains for the house... I got a bunch of material at a blow out sale and it's just gorgeous but my sewing machine was acting up and I was getting big bunches of thread on the bottom of the material and nothing I did would correct it.. I finally figured out today that it was the thread and the tension... the thread was old and really cheap and kept breaking and jamming up in the needle... so I put in some good thread and decided to correct the tension...

Just a side note here* a woman at work that sews a lot told me never to touch the top tension.. she said that when she buys a new machine she leaves the tension the way it was when she bought it, she changes other things but always leaves the factory setting on the top tension... well, the factory setting on my machine was all the way one way and I couldn't see that working... but was afraid to touch it thinking that I would be doomed to never being able to sew properly again and my machine would be ruined... WRONG!!!! Never listen to so called "experts".. it's alway good to experiment.. and besides in the book that came with the machine (which, by the way, is in four different languages) it says to adjust everything depending on what you're doing but the directions on how to do that are not clear...

But I finally got it working by turning the top tension half way and like I said earlier, I replaced the cheap thread... now I can't wait to get going on the drapes... maybe next weekend.. oh no, next weekend I'll be out of province so that's out... but I will get to it... Promise.. and who knows.. maybe there will be pictures... lol..

Ahhhh pictures.. everyone ready?

Now take your seats and get ready to view some interesting *cough*boring*cough* pictures of our house renovations.... I know.. just let me get this thing set up.. talk amoungst yourselves while I do that... I gotta search back through my pics to find the old ones to compare with my new ones...

Step one is admitting your house is ugly ... step two is admitting you're not powerless over ugliness.. step three is getting off your butt (or in this case R getting off HIS butt) and doing something about it...

Notice the floor covering (vinyl flooring or oilcloth as me mum used to call it) that is less attractive than ... say... bare subfloor... the pukey wall paper, the burgundy and green outdated color combination.. the mint green paint above the chair rail.... on second thought don't look too long or you may get the hives... Personally, I think the lone shoe in front of the woodstove adds a nice touch.. and the dog seems embarrassed that I'm actually taking a picture of this room ... but fear not... things will improve

Here is the new and improved version... as you can tell the laminate flooring adds a touch of class that is complimented by the calming undertones of the rest of the ensemble ... note the muted paint color.. a sort of taupe that is reflected in the texturing in the wallpaper... ahhh yes it is wallpaper.. but such classy stuff... the darker below and lighter above have similar shades of the brown/gray/taupe with small "threads" of gold.. it's a sight to behold... we can all bow our heads in a silent prayer of thanks... aaaaammmennnn....


*notice even Missy is new and improved with her nifty little hair bow.. oh no, we spared no expense... *

What is this thing.......????

What is this thing that sits on my desk with a twirly cord attached to it..??? I hear you can put it to your ear and talk to people far away.. I think it's called a PONE or something like that... been without a working communication device for so long now it's like some kind of alien being sittin on my desk.. and my ear tends to get sore when I talk to my daughter for more than an hour... never used to be like that.. what is with that?... and I forget it's there and when it rings (which is very seldom because people have forgotten me out here in the country since I've been gone from their speed dial) I get a fright at the clanging of it's internal bell.. and the more I've been without the more I think that the silence was great... but for that possible emergency or a need to make a hair dresser appointment (which to me is a call for immediate help).. I guess it's ok to have it around...

Speaking of hair dresser appointments, I have one this evening... my hairdresser was off on maternity leave (and so was my doctor.. hmmm.. strange).. and I found that the other hairdressers I tried have not been up to her standards.. hope it's not a case of remembered things being better than reality.. will let you know this evening how it all turns out... gotta go and go off to the job of jobs... later...

LandDesigner... a piece of crap!!!!

A couple of years ago we got this "wonderful" program called LandDesigner that is supposed to allow you to do a 3D version of your property with all the buildings on it and create wonderful gardens, you can even put a real photo of your house and drag and drop photos of real plants and shrubs into the design and see how it would look without having to dig up your yard, it even is supposed to have a buying guide to track the costs of the various plants etc.. and it is also supposed to have a calendar to keep track of all the things you're supposed to do in each season for your plants and when each is supposed to bloom in your area etc.. and you are supposed to be able to walk around in your 3d design... *notice the "supposed to"?*... well, sounds great in theory and since I have my new whiz bang computer with all the bells and whistles I thought I would break the cd set out and give it a whirl, so to speak..

I got the program loaded and proceeded to go through the first part of the program, laying out the lot dimensions and adding buildings etc.. got the layout done, put the house on the lot, and then tried to go to the next step which is to add barns and other features.. well that's the point where the program went belly up on me... and it did it over and over again at that point... can you say piece of crap??!!! I was so pissed off I could spit... hrrrumph... Oh well, back to the paper and pencil to design my new wonder garden I guess...

How did my new car become a garbage can on wheels???

When we got our new car last fall (A 2007 Saturn Ion Quad.. mmm .. I love our new car.. ).. I vowed to keep it nice and neat and tidy because it's a leased car... well, that little bit of self control lasted about a month and slowly but surely the coffee trays and cups and assorted pieces of paper etc started to litter the floor.. why can't they come out with some kind of a car garbage can thingy that won't top over for us pigs on wheels?.. if they can supply us with multiple cup holders so that we can drink coffee on the road, why can't they take that extra step and give us a portable waste basket to put the empty cups in until we get a sufficent supply to take to the garbage can when we get home? After all they frown on us when we throw garbage out the window as we're taking a nice drive in the country.. Tim Horton cups are made out of paper so are biodegradeable after all, right?... so to appease some idiotic moron who passed a bylaw that PEI can't have carbonated beverages in cans sold in this province, only bottled bubbly and have a law against litter, I allow the crap to pile up and up until I run out of room on the passenger side... then I proceed to fill the space between the back of the front seat and the back seat.. now it's getting to the point where I may have to start on the trunk...

We now are land lined....

After a year of fighting with the phone company they finally sent a guy out to check our complaints about our cell phone service. It's a long sad story but the long and short of it (well basiclly just the long) is that a little over a year ago we had two cell phones that we signed up on a three year contract for and a land line. We decided to cancel one of the cell phones but Aliant in their infinite wisdom told us that in order to do that we would have to pay out the cell phone contract which was $20 dollars a month for three years each phone .. hmmm.. 36x20=$720.0x2phones.. I don't think so Tim!!!...

So we said "screw you" and disconnected our land line.. leaving us with two cell phones... which would have been fine except for the fact that we live in the Burmuda Triangle of cell phone hell... a call can start off at a good signal and almost immediately drop off the map and you would hear the dreaded bleep blida bleep of a dropped call.. So instead of "screw you" it was "screw us" and we spent a year of complaining and being told we signed a contract so we suffered and moaned and basically became cut off from the outside world when we were at home.. our families stopped calling because they couldn't maintain a call for more than a couple of minutes at the most.... we never made any calls to any businesses from home... and heaven forbid if we had an emergency and had to call 911 (who's cost of service is added to our bill each month)..

The straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, was last week when we tried to call Aliant about a mistake on our bill.. you know when you phone those places that you have to go through the dreaded automated system where you have to press "1" for this and the "#" key for that.. well they don't have a "I'm going to take this fucking phone and ram it up your arse if it drops one more call" key... so I fumed and cursed and called back again and again.. until in frustration I called them on Skype (that wonderful phone system where you can phone out from your computer to a land line for next to nothing a year but don't have the system in Canada yet where you can receive calls and get your own Skype phone number)...

Anyway, back to my story, I got ahold of them on Skype to straighten the bill out and said at the end of the call that I wanted to make a complaint about our cell phone service and explained my frustration about the numberous dropped calls that evening (leaving out the arse ramming scenerio if you're wondering). They passed me along to their service people who took my information and passed it along to the other service people and asked what number they could call for more information if needed... I told them it's no use calling on the cell phone and the Skype can only call out, so I said to email me and proceeded to give them my email address..

Sure enough, a couple of days later I got an email asking for particulars: our civic address, time of day of dropped calls *like all day every day*, etc... I emailed them back all the info and they emailed back saying they would call me or in my case email me when a service man would be in our area... I emailed back saying "I hope you see the irony of the fact that you have to email me".. A few days later a guy did come out and confirmed our problem and gave us the name of yet another guy would took the complaints and said to tell him that he checked out the service in our area and it is minimal to nill and I thought "hmmmm... smells like a buck passing mission to me"..

But I did as I was told and lo and behold on Friday I got a call on my cell phone from the last guy on the list who is the head honcho for the cellular servic on PEI and he had an offer we couldn't refuse.. he allowed us to disconnect one cell phone with no penalty and would reimburse us back to the first of the year and would hook up our land line with no activation fee.. but the real funny part is while he was expaining all they would do for us, the phone kept dropping the calls.. I was laught myself silly as he called back and called back trying to apologise and grovel and saying he is experiencing our frustration first hand.. ha.. you don't know the half of it baby...

just a little side note.. I emailed him the next day and asked him if the first of the year he's reimbursing me for is the first of this year or the first of last year.. I'm leaning towards a reply of the first of this year but it doesn't hurt to ask eh...

Only have a minute...

Can we talk?.. well I just have a minute before I have to scurry off to the job of jobs.. this Island is whacked when it comes to weather forecasts.. we have a weather warning and we are supposed to have from 1-3 cm of snow!!! And the snow plow driver is going by and preplowing the roads (guess it's to save time later???)... sparks are flying off the blade and I really don't thinks that's too good on the ashphalt... but maybe I'm not up on the logistics of snow storm preparedness... Well I'm outta here.. promise to chat more later.. sorry I've been lax in coming in and filling you in on the fascinating adventure that is my life.. later gator...

Sometimes snow is good.....

I took a snow day today.. and somehow I feel strangely guilty.. as if I SHOULD have risked life and limb to drag my sorry butt through the bitter cold and white outs to go to a job that is OK but it's not TO DIE FOR! if you get my drift.. get it .. drift.. phhhttt.. didn't see that one coming did you?... But I did attempt to go into work.. warmed up the car.. drove about a quarter of the way there and when it got to the point that I couldn't see two car lengths ahead of me I pulled into a service station and called work on my cell phone to say that I was turning around and going back home.. and now I'm looking out my window and thinking that it's not too bad out there.. but as R said.. we are in a sheltered area and it's a bad place to judge the weather... and the radio station says it's supposed to get worse, not better.. so I'll take the storm day, cozy up to the wood stove.. do some knitting (NO.. I'm not preggy.. I'm making my doggy a little sweater so that she doesn't freeze when R takes her for a walk.. ).. I have some sewing to do and I could do some house work if I'm desperate... lol..

I still don't have my computer back.. but they did say a week to fix it.. we'll see.. and I'll believe it when I see it...

I managed to get some before pictures of our den and it's the difference between night and day with the new papers on it.. I wish I had taken some pics of the master bedroom before we took the crappy wall paper off and painted it.. our house is really coming along and when it's done.. wowser.. it's going to be really wonderful.. I liked the house the first time we saw it but now I really love it ... pictures to follow...

Do you want the good news first or the bad news?

Lets rewind to Thursday morning... and the good news..
My new computer arrrived ..
but.. now the bad news..
it doesn't work...
My son, who so graciously agreed to come over and set it up and network all our computers, tried in vain to get it working but it kept overheating and freezing up immediately... when it did work for the half a second before it refused to compute, it looked awesome.. but it kept freezing up.. the keyboard and mouse wouldn't work.. my man R was ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater... My son said it's a hardware problem.. so after repeated tries we called Future Shop and were informed that since it was bought over the internet and it was a net only deal that they would charge us to fix it .. hmmmmm... well my man went downstairs at this point (no doubt kicking the cat in the process)...

my son said let's call the online Future shop and explain the problems.. my son works at a call center for web design and knows a lot about computers and knows pretty well what's the matter with it (he says he thinks it's a bad cpu.. ??).. any way the guy from the help line said that that was probably the problem too and when we told him that the local Future Shop told us that they wouldn't fix it they said.. "oh no.. that's not true.. they are the registered repair people for the on line store".. and they also told him when we take the computer in today that if they give us a problem to call the company from the store and they will set them straight.. and if the company really gives me a problem that they will pay the shipping for us to ship the computer back to them for repairs..

so after work today off we will go to Future Shop and my son will come along and put on the serious-I-mean-business face (cause you know I'm a whimp when it comes to demanding service)...

So that's the whole sad story.. so I'm not too pleased with the whole thing.. but at least since I still have my old computer I'm not computerless until I get my new-not-so-shiny-in-my-eyes computer back.. hopefully working.. *big sigh*..

This also gives me a chance to transfer all my files that I want to keep over to my man's computer over the network because he has 80 gig of free space on his computer.. and once my new computer is hooked up and on the network I can transfer the files onto it.. a lot of file transfering but we'll get it done.. also my son is going to partition my computer so that I can have my files on part of the partition and programs on the other part...

Lets fast forward to Friday...
OK.. after only four hours sleep and almost falling asleep at my work station the day was finally over (I didn't get to bed until 1am this morning because of the problems with the computer and finally driving my son back into town) .. off we went to Future Shop.. my son, Chad, was very prepared ( we had the warranty, the shipping receipt and the phone number of the online help from the store) and he has the knowledge to back it up.. He explained the situation and what we had tried.. the guy that we talked to at first repeated what was said over the phone and Chad told him that he was sorry but he was mistaken and that he had talked to the On Line store and repeated what they had told him..

The guy said he'd have to check with the technitions and see what they said.. then he came back and asked if we had tried reinstalling the operating system and Chad said no that the computer wouldn't stay on for more than half a minute and there were no error messages so he knew it was a hardware problem and most likely a bad CPU.. the guy went back again and said that they could do the repairs on the computer since it was a desktop and that the type they couldn't repair was the laptops..

So we unpacked the computer and left the tower there and took the rest of the stuff back because they didn't want the keyboard, mouse, etc laying around because it could get lost or mixed up with other people's computer stuff.. and he said it's usually a week turn around time for repairs.. and if that's true then that really isn't bad at all..

I was so proud of my son, he handled the whole situation with calmness and grace.. he said later that there is no need to be screaming and shouting at the guy because he's not calling the shots.. he's just a clerk but he did say that if we wouldn't have gotten the results that we wanted we would have asked to speak to the manager.. So all's good and when the computer gets repaired Chad will be back out to complete the process.. thank goodness for children eh.. the parenting process is finally starting to pay off.. lol..

So lets sum it all up...
Well since I don't know a lot about computers and how they work I was a little upset.. more upset than mad.. but my son assured me that the problem is most likely fairly easy to fix and that once it is then I'll have one kickass computer.. and he's going to really put it through it's paces once we get it back to be sure it's all systems go or back to Future Shop it goes.. I've had experiences with cars where something went wrong and I sold it thinking it was a piece of junk and someone else bought it that knew about cars and fixed a minor problem and had it running like a top for years afterwards.. so I'll bow to my son's greater knowledge and hold off on my anger (and I usually don't get angry too often as a rule.. it's not how I operate)... will let you know how it goes in the weeks to come. *big sigh*... guess it's the waiting game all over again..

I'm awaiting the arrival of my new shiny computer.. I can't wait because the one I have now is dragging along on one microchip.. or whatever you call it.. R's not too thrilled about me buying a brand new computer just to do poser with and feels that if I clear out some of the stuff from my present one I should be ok.. (never mind that he got a new shiny computer a few months ago while I have had to contend with a 6 year old one.. *that's 198 in human years!!!*)... but after all it's my money and it's not like we go out and do anything so I feel like I'm working just to pay the bills so a new computer is the least I can do for myself.. I also told him that if I get a new computer it will work faster and I will not have to spend so much time on it.. *I'm not completely convinced that he bought it*... So I'm playing the waiting game with FutureShop.. wanna wait with me?..

just 11 days until Christmas...

And I'm taking off next week... just tomorrow to work and then I'm free until the day after boxing day... we had a big gnosh at work yesterday.. turkey, ham and all the fixin's... management does it every year.. they get a turkey or two, and ham or two.. 50 lbs of potatoes, 50 pounds of carrots, 50 pounds of turnips and cook'em all up for a big feast.. gotta say that the drowsiness caused by turkey is not inducive (or is that conducive?) to working in the afternoon...

Well, I didn't get an interview...

Well R has finished our front room.. here are some before pictures.. we had this tv cabinet given to us.. it was fine for the time being and my tv fit in it but when my tv broke and we got an new one it didn't fit in the old cabinet... and that's where the renovating began.. we decided to replace the tv cabinet, and thought that matching coffee table and end tables would look nice.. and while we were at it decided to paint the walls... the first two pics from last xmas show the room as it was...



As you can see the walls are green... a rather darkesh green that made spending time in that room at night very depressing... it was like a cave.. and during the day the light didn't seem to penetrate too well into our room of doom.. and it had a hideous paper border that had to go... once we removed the boarder we discovered that the paint color under the border was a completely different color... iiick... I had my crafts everywhere and you could barely see the laminate floors underneath the clutter....


this is our new and improved living room.. we painted the walls a wonderful sandy peachy warm but bright color... and the new entertainment centre and livingroom tables all tied in together.. I just love sitting in that room and taking in the ambiance... I feel immediately calm and relaxed there... and the new tv fits the new stand very well... the wall color matches all the woodwork and seems to compliment every color imaginable...


And this is R's chair that he brought over from Frederiction (he has a matching set) and the rust color could never be matched with anything before but it fits right in now.. I'm so loving that wall color (I'm so glad I picked it!!!! Maybe I can become a decorator... lol)...


And my crafts have been moved upstairs to the computer room (a spare bedroom) where we have constructed a crafting/sewing area in one end of the room... and the walls have been painted the same color... love love love it... althought I'm still trying to track down some of my crafts to organise on the shelves... I have stuff spread all over the house...


I didn't get an interview in Records.. I was reminded that the last time the job came up I wasn't qualified because I didn't have Office Studies (never mind that I've worked 20 years in what?.... AN OFFICE!!)... bunch a' turnips... oh well, now I'm thinking that I'm going to be retiring soon so what the hell... I'm starting to feel like every other gov't employee that's near retirement thinking "how can I do as little as possible and still get paid?".. *I've discovered that if you look busy enough you can practically do nothing and noone knows... shhhhhh... well at least I think they don't know... * and I do enjoy working where I'm at and the pay ain't half bad so I thought that I'd keep plugging on...

One step closer to a new job...

Well, my late friend's job in the Records Section has come up for competition. So I spent the day doing up my resume and job application on line. And WOW, I didn't realise how much work experience I had. The ironic thing about it is that when I started in Government it was in the very department where I'm applying for this particular job.. albiet it was 20 years ago and the job has changed quite a bit since then but the whole concept is the same. I'm going to sleep on the application tonight, give it a once over tomorrow and then send it along. I'll keep you updated on how things go.

I've switched my blogs to the new Beta

I much prefer the new beta.. and now my three blogs are all linked...

New Blogger in Beta

I created a new blog in Beta... just to check it out.. will let you know how it compares to this one later on... here's the url to it.. I just started it so be gentle... lol

http://lemonadefromlifeslemons.blogspot.com/

Last Night.....

Last night I took my friend out to eat and to a movie.. it was a lot of fun and the movie was light and funny... we hadn't gone anywhere special to eat but I enjoyed getting back together and catching up on how her and her family were doing.. but at the end of the night she did something that shocked me... she asked me if she could borrow $60.00... it felt so wrong on so many levels.. for one thing I have just recently been able to pull myself out of a money pit hell.. and she knows that... I took her out with money that I had saved.. and paid for everything, even the popcorn and pop at the movies (can you believe the ungodly prices they charge for a small popcorn and small pop nowadays.. !!)... I felt that it was almost a slap in the face for her to ask me that.. I politely refused but the silence for a while after that was deafening... I'm still a little shaken about the whole incident.. I know she must be hurting for money but still ... I wish she hadn't done that.. am I over reacting? It really left a bad taste in my mouth...

Try this game.. it's hilarious...

Go to google and put in your name and the word NEEDS.. it's hilarous the things that come up... I tried it and this is the 10 hits that I got..

1. Kathy needs .... lungs... (I would think that would be a given????)
2. Kathy needs ... eating in (in what?)
3. Kathy needs... to be on more talk shows (well.... yeah!)
4. Kathy needs.. Vee and Vee needs Kathy (hmmmm I hope Vee is a guy)
5. Kathy needs.. to tackle if she wants off the D-List (ohhhhh kayyyy???)
6. Kathy needs... to make an updated version of her DVD (I have a DVD .. how come noone told me)
7. Kathy needs.. to reconsider her menu prices (yeah.. they're too low)
8. Kathy needs... refills for many of her perscriptions, but her three different doctors all need her to come in for an office visit before re-prescribing (I have three different doctors for a reason people)
9. Kathy needs.. to recognise the benefit of using a two-inch or lower heel during her workday (using it for what?)
10. Kathy needs.. more self-confidence (you think?)

And with Kathryn

1. Kathryn Needs to give Heather lots of Dove Chocolate Bars.
2. Kathryn needs to run some errands or just plain get out of the house
3. Kathryn needs to execute her plan to stop the train very precisely, because if she miscalculates, she will be launching fully loaded freight cars all over
4. Kathryn Needs To Learn
5. Kathryn needs to go down for her first nap 3 hours after wakening
6. Kathryn needs a husband to save her from her uncle's marriage schemes ...
7. Kathryn needs someone who is going to give her a lot of attention and love, and who will continue working on her little feet
8. Ask A Real Guy: Kathryn needs help
9. Kathryn needs a birthday song, too!
10. and my favorite.... Kathryn needs prozac

I did it.. wrote the email...

On Saturday night I took the big step.. I emailed management to tell them that I was going to discontinue working in the cash office and that they would have to train someone to take my place.. and suprisingly they took it well... it wasn't an easy thing to do because my job has been what has defined me for a long time.. and I took a lot of pride in a job well done.. but at the same time I now feel like I'm being used and the fact that I'm getting paid the same as the clerks that just work the counter has really started to bug me... It's funny, at one time I was very possessive of my job.. I didn't want anyone else to learn it as well as I did because I didn't want to give up the control.. but now I'm at a point where I want out... not just out of the cash office but I want to retire.. but that will be a few years in the making.. five at least.. so for now, anything that will lessen the pressure and stress is good for me...

Today was the day that I was supposed to start my morning walks with my sister. We walk a short distance from my work along a walking path that was created just for that and my sister, who's retired, takes her dog Toby with her.. makes a great way to start the morning and I'm hoping that getting some regular exercise will help to get rid of some the the flab I've accumulated over the last couple of years... But it was not to be.. you see, it started to rain... hard.. so hopefully it will clear off in the morning and we can start... R has been walking Missy and so he's getting a little exercise.. now it's my turn..

R and I have decided to do a cookathon on the weekends, we prepared a meatloaf, about 8 pork chops, and a big pot of potatoes. Then we did up some plates and froze them.. we put some frozen veggies in each one before we froze them and they are to be used during the week.. Next weekend we plan on cooking a variety of chicken dishes... that way we can overlap the frozen meals and as time goes on we can have a whole variety.. and it's more healthy to do them ourselves because we know what's in each one.. also we can control portion sizes, I find if I'm hungry I tend to prepare more food then we need... The chops were delish, I prepared them with some golden mushroom soup over top in the roaster... mmmm tender and tastey...

I called my best friend, L, who I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen for a very long time.. since we moved out to the country I just come home and crash... and a drive back into the city is not something I want to do... so I decided on the weekend that I would call L and ask her if she wanted to go out for dinner and a movie, my treat.. so Wednesday is the day... So I'm staying in for dinner and we're going to the movies after... should be great catching up on the news...

New plans.. gonna get the work monkey off my back...

btw, there is no job waiting in the office I was at yesterday.. so until one opens up I'm stuck where I am....

So after thinking about how much less stressful it was working there yesterday I decided, after a lot of thought, to give up my job in the cash office and just work on the counter... there's a woman that has been asking to be trained in the cash office for a long time and I checked with her today and she's still interested so tomorrow or early next week I'm going to be sending an email off to my manager and the director, telling them that they will have to start training someone soon because in the near future I want out of there.. It's not worth risking my health (I have high blood pressure) and happiness for a job that doesn't pay any more than working on the counter alone.. so soon I will be going to work, wait on customers and that will be it.. no more going above and beyond and getting nothing extra on my paycheck for it..

Well I got to see how the other half lives...

Today I was asked to work (and I use that word loosely) in one of our smaller branch offices because most of the staff were going to a funeral.... so it was me and one other girl most of the morning and another one in the afternoon... In our main office we have a staff of 11 and a number machine that rings out the customer's number directing them to the appropriate wicket for service... and the bell is constantly ringing and most times it's the never ending "NEXT"... with hardly a moment for a breather... and the fact that I work in the cash office in the mornings every second week adds to the stress and sense of urgency to get at it and get it done...

Now today at the brance office I sat for the first two hours with narry a customer.. I chatted with the other clerks.. checked my office email.. got a coffee and sipped it slowly.. did some stretches at my desk... yawned a lot... such a hard life... and I probably waited on 15 customers all day.. compared to the 50 or so in the main office on a busy day... hmmmm and to think that they are getting the same pay as I am ... there's something wrong with this picture... I just can't put my finger on it..

So the possiblity of applying for a job in this office is becoming more attractive every day.. although it might drive me crazy not having anything to do all day... but it might cure the burning hole in my stomach and tension headaches.. and considering I'm planning on retiring in five years or so I think I could live with the non-stress for a few years.. don'cha think?

Ahhh the wonder of modern medicine...

I was getting ready to come home from work on Friday and I noticed that I had a pressure in my bladder.. nothing too bad but just something that I thought might develope into something if I'm not careful.. it takes me 20 to 25 minutes to drive home depending on the traffic.. I pull in the driveway and I'm starting to feel the pain.. get in and go to the toilet and the pain is bad and I have a tinge of blood in my urine.. and not more than a half an hour later it's pure blood... I had panic in my eyes when I told R that we needed to get to a night clinic.. like NOW!.. so we drive into Montague to their small hospital knowing that the line ups in the emerg. would be less than at the Charlottetown hospital or even a walk in clinic.. and we were right... in a little over an hour we were walking out of there with a perscription... for Sulfa Drugs... OMG!!!... I used to have a lot of bladder infections when I was younger and Sulfa Drugs were all that worked for me.. but I hated them... they always make me so sick to my stomach.. luckily I have two and a half days down of a total of 10...

What really shocked me was how fast the infection came on and developed into something that severe... I had felt fine all day.. no pain.. but I had been going to the bathroom more than usual.. and thinking back I had been going to bed a lot earlier the last few days because I was more tired.. but the infection went from zero to sixty in about an hour... but soon after I took the first pill it started to do it's magic... and the bleeding stopped.. now if I can just be sure to take all of the prescription so that I don't relapse.. but seriously *gag, double gag*

Fashion is fickle...

It seems every day there's a new fashion craze, like the fuggly new holey shoes or piercing every inch of human flesh and tatooing where you gotta admit it gotta hurt like hell to get thousands of sharp, ink laiden needles jammed under the surface of your skin... not to say that the fashion of my generation was any better (although I've noticed that a lot of the styles have come back in style *gag*.. but I think I've come up with a new fashion accessory... it's warm, and get this, self cleaning ... it's actually angora (albiet short hair) so the snobbish can continue to look down their bobbed noses at the meer mortals that we are.. My new invention is called the catsock... and I predict it will be the latest trend.. get yours while it's hot *or at least snuggly and warm*

Back to work today...

Well at least I had the gloating over my car to look forward to... lol... I've been off of work for three weeks straight and within a couple of hours the old fingers of tension wrapped themselves around my neck... say it with me *I LOVE MY JOB... I LOVE MY JOB... OOOOMMMMM*.... I was worried that I would forget all my passwords and forget how to do one of the 200 plus job responsibilities... but no such luck.. it was shoulder to the wheel once again... *how many days did you say it was until my retirement?"... This is a very cold thing to say but a woman that worked in the Record section of another department in our building died and I'm wondering if I should apply for her job... and she's barely cold in the grave.. *shudder*... What is this job turning me into?....

We got a car today....

We got our car today.. *doing a little happy dance*
We made our final decision on the car and got it today instead of waiting for November.. we used my car as a trade in and the fact that Arkay was in the services saved us $500.00... So we don't have to make a payment this month and no down payment besides the trade in... We leased instead of buying and this car is on a four year lease...

This is the color of our car and it's a 2007 Saturn Ion Quad Coupe... We don't have a spoiler on ours but it is loaded... we got A/C, CD player, cruise control, keyless entry, alarm, power windows and locks, and you can adjust the mirrors from inside.. there are probably a few other things that I can't think of right now...

They call it a Quad Coupe because there is a half door on the back on each side that opens the opposite way to the front doors (like the old suicide doors from the old old cars) there is no handle for it on the outside or the inside, you have to open the front door and the handle is in between the doors... very cool...

This is the interior.. see all the pretty dials and stuff... lol... and it has the most heavenly new car smell... mmmmmmm.... (I'm easily pleased...lol)...

Holidays almost over!

This is my last week of holidays and we've accomplished a lot in the last couple of weeks...

the upstairs floors are done as well as the den floor.. this is a picture of the color of the den flooring, it's darker than the flooring we have on the upstairs.. We got ourselves a screen door for the side door which R is going to install once we get the bifold doors back on the hall coat closet. We bought a water tank for the basement and we're having a plumber in on Friday to replace the one in the basement that's always getting waterlogged (the new one has a bladder inside that holds the prime better).. we got some fake brick to put around our flower beds in a yard sale for $10.00 a box.. We had an electrician in to fix the wiring in one of the upstairs bedrooms, he said the wiring in the house is aluminum and it tends to expand and contract and gets loose over time..

We also took a bunch of cars out for test drives including Toyota Yaris and Corolla, Honda Civic and Fit, Saturn Ion, Dodge Caliber and a Mazda 3... my personal favorite is the Honda Civic, with the Saturn Ion next and then the Toyota Yaris.. I'm pretty sure we're going to go with the Ion on a lease and it's going to be in November some time.

I got some shocking news today.. a coworker died in her sleep last week.. as far as we know she was perfectly healthy (although obviously not)... her husband came home in the morning from work to find her in bed and decided to go out for coffee and when he got back she was still in bed and he decided to go wake her up and found out she had died.. how terribly shocking is that!! I can't even imagine how he must have felt!!

Found out one of the branch offices are against us going for a reclassification!!!! It was a complete shock.. but then again they are a very small office with very few customers so I really don't think that they deserve a raise anyway... when they send someone in to help out if we're short staffed the employee can't do any of the work so we have to put her on the camera to take pictures or to do straight renewals.. really pisses me off that she's getting paid the same as the rest of us but does diddly squat.. she told one of the girls that he main job consisted of stocking the break room!!!! We have our reclass request passed in to the manager and director and they said that they need a couple of small changes and then it will be ready to go.. will let you know if there are any developements...

At the starting of my vacation I went to one of my nieces' wedding and now at the end I'm going to one of my nephews' wedding... they are very practical and for the reception they are having a pot luck and I'm bringing homemade biscuits and pepper steak (if I can find the darned recipe!)... I made him something and won't post a picture of it until after the wedding in case he reads this... :o)

I sorted out my closets and bureaus and packed up three garbage bags of clothes, and threw out some more stuff that wasn't fit to wear and took the clothes over to my daughter so she could sort through it then contact my sister to take the rest to her church to distribute....

Took our dog Missy for a walk one morning to the end of our road where the farmer has a track to exercise their race horses and when we were walking around the track I looked down and saw some HUGE coyote tracks (the coyotes here are cross bred with wolves so they are much larger than a normal coyote).. I'm glad that we didn't come in contact with that beast.. apparently their mare won't let the foal go down to the river to drink because she's scared of the coyotes.. can't blame her at all...

I cleaned out my fridge, wish that you could press a button and it would miraculously clean itself.. I'm not lazy, just practical....

This woman is on a mission...

http://www.myspace.com/mgchs check out this blog.. it is written by a great woman who, to raise money to build a new animal shelter, has agreed to spend 30 days (the month of September) in a cage like one of the animals in the shelter and she will be writing about her experiences. In the beginning it tells about her family dropping her off at the shelter... some people do amazing things for a cause..

House Renovations

I don't know how this happened but the pics went out of order.. well as you can see the laminate flooring is now down on the upstairs bedroom, hall and bathroom.. R did an excellent job of laying it so that he didn't have to put a joiner between the hallway and the spare bedroom and the hallway and the bathroom.. since the pictures are sort of out of sinc I hope you can see which ones are which..

I have the first one is of the yucky bathroom and then one of the bathroom with the new floor, but I don't think it's right after but the third one down... anyway, I'm sure you can figure that out.. I found the laminate floor really brightened up the bathroom and our toilet has a wooden seat that that sort of matches (personally I HATE the wooden seat because I never feel like it's clean enough.. ewww)... and the harvest gold crappy color of the fixtures actually looks kind of nice against the faux Oak.. we're putting a boat type sealer on the bathroom floor to prevent the laminate from getting water damage and are putting a quarter round around the edges as well...

Somewhere in there are pics of the hallway and it's a big improvement over the subfloor that was all that was left once we lifted the crappy carpet a couple of years ago (we tried lifting the subfloor and saw there was a wood floor underneath but alas it was a soft wood floor and for some odd reason there was big spaces between the individual pieces.. this is a very old home so we were hoping that there was hardwood floor under the subfloor but boo hoo we were wrong)....

Then there are a couple of pics of the spare bedroom (forgive the mess because I was so exited about the floors being finished that I didn't tidy up completely before I took the pics). I really love the color of the flooring and now we'll have to repaint up here because the baby blue in the bedroom does not do the floor justice... We have to touch up the baseboard and put quarter round everywhere up here as well but it sure picks up the look and feel of the house...
Now we have to do the den.. the flooring we got for down there is a bit darker faux oak and should looke really nice against the brick wall behind the wood stove... Will post pics as we get that down.. We have to get some sort of ceramic tile for the entry way because some times we get snow, etc around the doorway in the winter and if we get a really high wind and rain against that door it will leak a bit.. So the laminate will not do for that.. It really gives you a boost to get some improvements done on the house..

Yesterday was my niece's wedding.. they were going to have it on the beach but it rained.. hard... and it was cold.. so they had it in a shelter.. and then there was a beautiful double rainbow... a good sign I would say... they also had a sand ceremony where they poured sand from two single jars into a large jar and the mingling of the sand represented their union in marriage ...

Then everyone went to their house for a reception.. and while there I was talking to one of my sisters about my other sister's son (she has two sons whose names start with "A" so sometimes I get them mixed up).... I got an invitiation to A#1's wedding and my sister said did you hear A#2's engaged?.. I said you mean A#1.. and she said no, I meant A#2.. *now I was confused because A#2's gay* and I opened my mouth and said "Is he engaged to a guy?"... well duh... I felt like rewinding the last two minutes and starting over again... color me embarrased...

BTW I have no idea if she liked the painting because she didn't open her gifts while I was there...

Thanks to Earl I've now included a Site Counter..

And erm.. I don't have the success of his.. in fact, I think I'm the only one reading it of late.. lol.. oh well... that way I can be as blunt and forthcoming as I want without the fear of tons of people reading it.. but it does slightly ding my ego a bit... and I no have a bit of the "nobody loves me" syndrome.. phhttt... all of you that would like to stroke my ego should send their dollars to Kathryn D at - - - - - - ...

If anyone's interested

If anyone's interested I finished the portrait for my niece here http://thecreativelifeofkathryn.blogspot.com/ I must say that I'm pleased with how it turned out.. check it out and give me your opinion (ok only if it's positive.. phhhttt)...

Shopping for the house

Not to get a house because we have one.. but shopping for stuff for the house.. yesterday R and I went into town to check out the Building Centres for flooring for our upstairs bedroom (where we have our computers and spend a lot of time) and went to three places to check on prices, we also wanted to get tiles for the upstairs bathroom.. we bought this place three years ago, it's an older home in the country and needs a lot of work.. including a new window in this bedroom as well as the flooring..

Anyway, we checked out the Home Hardware and saw some really different click tile, it's like laminate flooring but it has a black textured finish on it and it was 99cents a square foot.. not a bad price ( down from 2.89 a square foot and underlay for $25.00 for 200 sq feet) but we had to buy the whole lot of tile and it was an odd amount..

Next we went to the Kent Building Centre and saw some laminate flooring on for 87 cents a square foot that was nice (and underlay for $20.00 for 200 sq feet).. the guy who waited on us told us that they had some end lots in the back that he could give us a good deal on.. almost the same but a bit darker in color.. a faux oak.. and he said he'd give it to us for 65 cents a square foot .. we said we'd take the 13 boxes they had left, got him to put our name on it to hold it until we could get the trailer to take it home and noticed that there were other boxes laying around of laminate flooring..

Then we went to the Home Depot and checked their stuff out.. they had laminate flooring for 99 cents a square foot and underlay for $29.00 for 200 sq feet... and tile for around 45 cents a square foot but for that you need to buy grout and stuff to stick it down...

So we went home and on the way decided to get enough laminate flooring from Kent to do the bedroom upstairs, the hallway, bathroom, the entryway downstairs, the den and underlay for the whole thing and it only cost us a bit less than $600.00 for the whole thing... and R's going to lay it all down himself and it doesn't need to be glued down or nailed .. I'm very happy with the purchase and it will make a huge difference it the look of the house... will post some before and after pics later..