you never really think about having to swallow until you can’t do it
Ugh. I think I am sick. And I know, you’re thinking “Cat, you’re always sick!” and generally I am, but since September 2006 (Edited to say, apparently LAST April I had a cold with a bad cough! I totally forgot about that so it musn’t have lasted that long! I saw a post about it when I was linking to the photo of the empty living room from last year. oops!) it has only been stomach (or migraine) related. Everyone at work has been sharing this respiratory, sinus cold thing since the end of the summer. I have miraculously been immune to all those germs. Why? I have no idea. Maybe Fate felt sorry for me with all my fall apart intestinal problems. Who know. The thing is I have not had a cold since the Plague of Yore after our trip to Upper Canada Village in September 2006. I can’t afford to get one NOW when I have my grandparents (in their 90s and susceptible to germs), my father (undergoing treatments and susceptible to germs) and an 18-month old niece coming to dinner on Sunday for my father’s 60th birthday. I can’t get all these people sick! I also, apparently, can not spell susceptible according to all the underlines when I spell check. I am seriously hoping that this pain in my neck and throat and left ear are mainly dust related. We still have a lot of dust from when our floors were re-varnished while away and though…
faltering festiveness
I have a ton of Christmas stuff to acquire and put up. Sure it’s only mid-November, but I like to have my home and hearth ready for the first of December. Our tree will be bought most likely the second week of December so it doesn’t dry out and die before Christmas is actually here, but I am still not happy with the way the room is laid out and where the tree will probably go. Everything seems off and wrong this year, I want to decorate but I don’t like the options in front of me for where things will go or what will be decorated. Sure we have a home to fill up over the years, but I want our first Christmas in this place to be special and warm and not look like we’re welfare folk living off of scraps. I lost most than I thought in that fire, I have to purchase all new wrapping and bags (thank goodness for the dollar store) but I can’t replace the awesome place mats and table runner I bought in 2005 because no one makes anything like it anymore. Which sucks because I loved my little snowmen theme. And of course the awesome dishes I had that went with them are hard to match to anything that’s out this year (and more broke in the fire/insurance/moving a gazillion times process). And my table is now hidden in the kitchen since we don’t have a dining room table yet. Maybe…
a request for a goal
My entire life I have had some sort of obsession with cards. I don’t know why. I love to give them and I love to receive them. So I am asking (begging?) if you have my new home address, please send me a holiday card this year (if you send them out) because for some reason I am feeling very anxious about receiving cards at my new home. I am having a slight obsession about holiday decorations. We don’t really have any furniture upstairs and I don’t know where I can put all my decorations. Where will the tree go? I need to buy end tables and a coffee table and a shelf thing to decorate before December! It’s important to me this year to fill my house with Christmas cards, which I do every year, but I want this first Christmas in our New Home to be homey and filled with holiday cheer and love. I would love to have many, many cards. I plan on sending out a bunch as well. If you send ME one, I will send YOU one (you have to send me your mailing address though). If you don’t have my new address and you use a VALID email address when you leave a comment and you would like my address leave me a comment saying so and I will reply to your comment via email and send you my address. How does that sound? Yes, I am fishing for cards. Yes, asking people…
my allergies are in full bloom
All because of these in my yard… And they are being guarded by her –
house
pestsguests!Now that we have a house, we should have people over. At least that’s what other people with houses seem to do. In no way are we professional entertainers or even remotely into dinner parties… but for close friends, we’ll let them in. We can be nice once in a while. So this weekend Monkey is staying with us… well, sort of, she’s not here right now, but she will be. And then she’ll be over on Wednesday to watch ANTM with me. Whee! And last night we had Ravi over as well and we put some meat on the Barbie and ate and played Cranium and then went out to Stogies for cigars and martini’s. My only problem with all of that was the awful migraine that was threatening to burst my left eye (especially at the bar, which was unlike it’s normal mellow, quite place and full of freakin’ parties and really… REALLY loud music… especially if you have a migraine.) Anyhow… Jinx was quite enamoured with Monkey. Especially when she had cheese. Annie? Not so sure… The boys got into a little tiff over the BBQing. Shawn won. I missed out on taking photos of the actual dinner spread (I blame the migraine) but I did get a shot of the men cleaning up… Monkey and I just sat and looked pretty while that was happening. And Jinx wanted everyone to know he was pretty, too. Or rugged and manly… One everything was (mostly) cleaned and put…
sunday night
What a loooong day. Very long. But on the bright side we have stuff installed and at the end of the day the in-laws go to their own home. 😉 Things that were accomplished today: Our spice racks are up! Yay! Our breadbox is stained and back in our own home! Our paper towle dispenser is installed! And I made chocolate chip cookies this evening with Shawn’s help. When he went away this is what happened… The stupid cookie sheet flipped out of my hands when I was putting it down on the counter and burned my arm. Damnit that hurts!! And although they were threatening 25cm of snow today, nothing happened until just about a hour ago. In about 15 minutes from it starting this is what my backyard looked like. (Complete with Jinx’s tail at the bottom there ;)). Stupid snow! It’s the 15th of bloody APRIL! Just STOP already! Apparently between now and tomorrow night we might get 10-15 cm of snow. I am not amused. (2.5cm = 1 inch, I think… so 4-6 inches?) And now it’s a little after nine and I should make sure I go to bed at a decent hour so that I can actually get up tomorrow and go to work. Oh, how I do not want to go to work. I have decided that I do not like it and I much prefer staying at home. If only we had won the lotto this weekend. Shucks and darn.
slow and steady gets the house unpacked
This cold has really wiped the two of us out. I feel awful that Shawn has to go to work this week and have both mixes guilt and relief that I didn’t. I think the cold hit me a little harder. I am at the point where I can’t move/breathe/exist without coughing. And the coughing hurts. I hate coughing. I know that if I wasn’t this beaten by the cold I would have much more stuff unpacked. As it is, we have most of the main things we need unpacked and the rest can wait until we are a little more settled in. We did managed to get one desk put together last night. It only took about 2 hours. Ugh. Now we just need the other one in the opposite corner. We’re going to wait for the weekend.. or tomorrow night. 🙂 As you can see, our basement is slowly coming together. Those boxes of chairs are in the spot where my desk is going to go. We almost have the wall unit completely set up. Right now you can see our computers are set up on the coffee table. 😉 And look! There I am on Facebook! HA! All this unpacking and building has really taken a toll on the dogs. Here they are the other night completely wiped out from a hard day’s work. What? We worked HARD, darnit!
*hugs technology*
There are some days – only some – where technology works in my favour. I am writing this post on my shiny new computer (purchased from a co-worker). I have been wracking my cute little brain on how to get what’s on the other computer onto this one. Thanks to the wonders that are CuteFTP, Incredimail and a USB 20GB flash drive (thanks, Dad!), I have managed to reinstall and copy all files and programs that I needed – including ALL email and mailboxes. That, my friends, is beyond awesome. My only glitch (because there has to be one, right?) is that one of the PopCap games that I am so very, very fond of was purchased for me by Shawn. He no longer has that Order Confirmation email and I can’t reinstall it on my new computer. GAH! I have sent PopCap support a lovely little message with the required information and I hope that they will find everything in order and resend me my confirmation number. I really don’t want to spend the money on this game and gosh darnit all I LOVE IT! We’ll see what happens. I am honestly quite impressed at how much I was able to keep and how little I had to lose in switching computers. All that is left is to copy music files… but I will use my CDs for that since I have them now (not quite unpacked, but close!) rather than copy the files, that way I can start…
good morning!
I’m sitting here at the computer drinking possibly the worst coffee ever out of one of my grandmother’s old mugs. As someone who is the farthest thing from a coffee snob in the world, and who really doesn’t drink coffee, if I can say this stuff is bad? Well, it’s bad! And then there’s the other fact – why am I even drinking coffee? Why did I even make it? I don’t know, really. I am not trying to stay awake, nor am I at all stressed. But for some reason, I felt like the first morning in the new house should have a freshly brewed coffee smell. And It just felt like… home. Comforting. And sitting here on the couch at the computer with my coffee, I thought of Meritt. 🙂 There is something about the image of someone starting their day, still in jammies with some coffee in the morning that I just find peaceful and calm. I am content. The first night in the house was uneventful. I was so tired I didn’t even have any of the anxiety I generally have when sleeping in a new place for the first time. Even with the new bed (which did actually impede my sleeping because I think it’s a little too firm for me, my back was KILLING me all night. :() and new sheets, I didn’t feel scared or out of sorts. Not sure how tonight will go, I doubt I’ll be as exhausted. Heh. This was…
we’re in!
8:30 p.m. and here we are sitting on our couch watching TV. The dogs are lying side by side (Literally! Generally Annie doesn’t like Jinx touching her! ;)) in front of the coffee table and here I am checking my email, my facebook messages and just… sitting on the couch with Shawn IN OUR FIRST HOME! I am exhausted and excited and need to go unpack a bit more in the bedroom so that we can actually sleep in there tonight. The bed is made, but there are boxes piled all around it and on it! I will update and most likely post photos this weekend. If I don’t get back on to write anything – Happy Easter everyone!!
with two dogs in the yard…
Talk about a long day yesterday. At 7:00 in the morning we packed up the car, complete with dogs and headed over the the new house. Ironically I think this was the fastest it ever took us to drive there from here, since most traffic was going in the opposite direction. It was 30 minutes door-to-door. Shawn stuck around for a bit as we let the dogs loose in the new house. The previous owner had three dogs. Three. So our two dogs were frantically searching for the dogs since they obviously could smell them. Poor Jinx gets so excited about other dogs that he shakes from head to toe and will CRY if he can’t find them. He was frantic, the poor thing. Looking in closets, in the rooms, everywhere. And when he saw his reflection in the mirror coming down the stairs he was so happy! He sat and quivered on the step, not going too close to the other dog and whined and wagged his tail and just shook. Meanwhile Shawn and I are trying to explain to him that it’s not another dog – it’s him! And Annie and US! Shawn left for work about 7:50 and I was left with two anxious dogs. I knew they’d be out of sorts for a while and I wasn’t too concerned. I was however getting fed up with Mr. Whiny Pants and kept telling him to shut up. Heh. Annie calmed down first – big surprise there –…
home pook home
The keys were obtained Friday night. Boxes have been slowly brought over. Today more stuff is being brought over. By Easter, we should be there full-time. This is pretty exciting, except of course for the lifting and unpacking. 😉 Here we are in the car on the way to the New House. Yay! There are many, many traffic lights between the in-laws’ place and ours and I am too impatient to sit at a traffic light when I COULD be in my new home! Here is our lovely front step. Whereas I am a little sad we don’t have a large enough front porch for me to sit on, it’s still nice to have some steps! Once you walk in, enjoy our back and white tiles in the foyer. I certainly do! This is the view you get from the front door. I love the hard wood stairs up to the second floor. There is also a huge skylight window above that mirror on the left wall which brightens up the entire staircase. Off to the right of the front door is our living room slah dining room. Currently we have nothing to go in this room other than boxes. We will quickly be getting rid of that dining room light as it is beyond tacky and so far Shawn has hit his head on it about 17 times. Between the front door and the stair to the second floor is our lovely powder room. It’s good to have a…
and we’re off!
Got the pickup truck packed, our car packed and we’re bringing a ton o’ stuff to the house! Wheee!
keys tonight!
I swear I had planned to write a big long thing today… but then the day just slipped away from me. I have been packing up all our DVDs, books and videogames. Once Shawn gets home from work tonight, we’re filling the car with boxes and then driving off into the sunset to go pick up the keys for our new house. This weekend will be spent cleaning and bringing more boxes and clothes over. All the big stuff should be moved next Friday – we just have to remember to book the truck. Oops. I am covered in dust and grime from the piles of things we stacked up last year at this time and then never looked at again. But boy do we have a lot of crap around for having spent a year in a basement with 99% of our possessions in storage! I’m going to need to start a new category for this house thing, since it’s technically not House Hunting any more. Hmm, not sure what to call it. So, I’m off to get a few more things together for tonight and I will also be bringing my camera with me so that this entire weekend shall be documented! Sorry for the lack of updates….