I know that I cannot be the only person who struggles after the time changes. This morning I could not get going for some reason. I slept in a full 45 minutes later than I normally would and it threw my whole morning routine off. Work was a blur this morning so that's a good thing. With this being a short week, there's much more to do but I'm not worrying about it too much. I'm taking each day as it comes!!
Anyway, it's time for Monday Madness!
1. What makes your country special?
I could list a whole bunch of things that make Canada great but I think what is truly cool about this country is it's geography. The nation takes up a huge chunk of real estate so we have many distinct, different types of terrain. It's just a beautiful country full of unique and beautiful people who survive and thrive in sometimes extremely difficult weather conditions and in isolated areas.
2. What makes your hometown special?
It is the "First Capital" of Canada.
3. What makes your neighbourhood special?
It's called "the Wartime" because the homes in our neighbourhood where build either during or just after WWII. The neighbourhood is adjacent to the Alcan Manufacturing Plant and the homes were built for men who were returning from the war, to work in the plant. What I love most about our neighbourhood is that it's like a suburban area in the middle of the city. It's a working class neighbourhood and everyone keeps half of an eye on everyone else (but not to the point of being nosey). It's a great place to live.
4. And your loved ones - what is it about them???
Hey, if I love them, they must be cool!
5. And finally you - what is it that is unique about you...???
I think that everyone is unique. Even the clique-y-est person is different in their core. We're all individuals, deep down inside, no matter how alike we may look on the outside. It would take me days and days to explain, in detail, what makes me unique.
Monday, April 05, 2004
Sunday, April 04, 2004
I think that I've become overly attached the memes list thing this week. I can't write for shit this week and I'm not sure why. I suppose I could blame it on my cold. I mean, sleep deprivation and over-production of snot products can cause brain damage I suppose.
The bottom line is that nothing much is happening these days. We go to work, we come home. We decide if we're eating at home or going out. We eat. We watch Coronation Street on tape, do the dishes or whatever needs doing. We go to bed, cough, hack, blow noses, etc. Sleep. Repeat. Not exactly thrill-a-minute is it? Between it all, we're slowly getting out shit together as far as Mark's dad moving in with us goes.
During our lazy hazy dazy day yesterday we made up a list of things we have to do before he moves in.
1. New floor in the bathroom. Two years ago, we had the flooring ripped out of our bathroom because the sub-floor was deteriorated to a dangerous level. We had the sub-floor replaced but decided that we wanted to paint the bathroom before we had the flooring replaced. Because we were basically lazy fucks (although I like to think that we were just busy), we didn't paint the bathroom until June 2003. Of course, we still have not yet replaced the flooring and I just have rag rugs all over the place in the bathroom so that we don't have to walk around on the plywood. We thought about having someone come in and do it but yesterday we decided that we'd just suck it up and do it ourselves. Next weekend, the long weekend, we'll probably do it. At the same time, we'll put down baseboards in there too. We ripped out the old ones before painting (because the previous owners felt it appropriate to have different trim on each wall).
2. Additional fixtures in the bathroom. We need to install things like a new cabinet for the little old guy, an extra towel bar and some of those old people safety rail deals in the tub. The towel bar and cabinet, we can do ourselves but I know that the LOG is not going to feel too secure if we install the safety rails ourselves (because we are just dumb fucks who couldn't possibly do it write) so we'll have to have those nice folks from the Sh*ppers Drug mart health centre do it. Goodness knows that we wouldn't have clue one about how to find a stud!! On the upside, if they don't do a good job and he falls and injures himself, we can always sue the good folks at the health centre instead of suing ourselves.
3. Fixing up his closet. The bedroom he's moving into is the second largest in the house. It's at the front of the house and has two nice sized windows. It's a really nice room and, when we first moved in here, we used it as an office. The only weirdness in this room is the closet. The hot water heater is in the closet. Our house is about 60 years old and was built on a concrete slab so we don't have a basement. The furnace is under the stairs, in the middle of our kitchen, and the hot water heater is on the other side of the wall from the bath tub. It actually works out really well as it's easy to get to but it does sort of cut into the space in the closet. The closet itself needs a coat of paint and some new shelves. The shelves that are in there now look really craptacular. They don't look like they'd hold much and, because we don't really use the room much, it's been something that has been easy to ignore until now.
4. Throwing out / sorting through crap. He's got a tonne of crap that we'll be getting rid of, either in the garbage or to goodwill. We also have a bunch of crap that is piled up in there and it's all gotta go. Not having a basement has been a blessing and a curse. It's forced us to get rid of a lot of useless shit that we'd otherwise just pack into boxes and toss down there. Right now, our computer room / office is full of the stuff that would ordinarily live in a basement and we're slowly sifting through it. I mean, we're going to keep some of the shit but we're also going to be chucking a lot of it out. Later on this summer, we plan to put a new shed in the yard, at the end of our driveway, where I can store seasonal stuff and things that I need to have to access to but not all of the time. We have an old-school aluminum garden shed that we keep patio furniture, bikes, lawn mower, gardening tools, etc. in but is has stupid sliding doors that freeze up in the winter. The shed I've got my eye on is vinyl and the doors open out. If we put it at the end of the driveway, there will always been a clear path shoveled to it and I can keep stuff like Christmas decorations out there and it won't be a major task to haul them back into the house in December. Installing a shed will also allow us to make the computer room / office into a more pleasant space, possibly even a guest bedroom. We'll see.
5. New ceiling fan. Right now, there is this semi-crappy track lighting that we installed after we painted the room. I've never really cared for it but it was okay for what it was at the time. We want to install a hugger ceiling fan (like the one we put in our bedroom last year) as it really throws the light well and it's a great fan.
6. Doors. As it's been just the two of us, we haven't had any doors upstairs. No two doors matched in this house and they took up way too much space so we just ripped them out when we moved in. In the bathroom and the front bedroom (where LOG will be sleeping), we have curtains up but I'm thinking that we're gonna want doors again. Fortunately, this time, we can purchase doors that actually match and that aren't totally shitty cheap crap that has been pulled out of the dump.
We figure that most of this stuff can be done over the next couple of weekends. Originally, we wanted to rip out the disgusting yellow/gold/puke carpet that is on our stairs and the upstairs landing but we've decided to live with it until we can afford to have it all ripped out and replaced with something nicer. When we first started talking about him moving in last fall, we had a shit load of ideas of things that we were going to do and we've really scaled that down. Partly because of the cash but mostly because of the laziness.
The work will be totally worth it though because it'll mean that our bathroom is finally finished and we'll have a lot less running around to do as far as LOG goes. He currently lives about 7 minutes away from us, in an apartment building that is mostly full of seniors. On a purely cosmetic level, it's a beautiful building. It's well maintained and very safe. It's also about 5 million degrees in there and I don't know how any person can live in it. LOG is always complaining about being short of breath. I suggest, on a regular basis, that this is because there is no air in his home. He also doesn't do anything all day. He watches TV, makes his meals, and that's about it. He lives on the main floor, right next to the lobby, so he doesn't even have far to go to get his mail. When he moves in here, he's going to have to go up and down the stairs several times a day. Hopefully this exercise (and breathing fresh air instead of gross apartment air) will improve his circulation and he'll have more energy than he has now. I know that I'll have more energy. I won't miss running back and forth and back and forth to this apartment. I also think that, as crotchety and mean as we can be, it'll be good for him to have some company. It'll be better for all of us I think. I hope. If it's not, we'll have to figure out a way to deal with it but, I have to say, I won't miss going into the sauna that he lives in. Won't miss it a bit!
The bottom line is that nothing much is happening these days. We go to work, we come home. We decide if we're eating at home or going out. We eat. We watch Coronation Street on tape, do the dishes or whatever needs doing. We go to bed, cough, hack, blow noses, etc. Sleep. Repeat. Not exactly thrill-a-minute is it? Between it all, we're slowly getting out shit together as far as Mark's dad moving in with us goes.
During our lazy hazy dazy day yesterday we made up a list of things we have to do before he moves in.
1. New floor in the bathroom. Two years ago, we had the flooring ripped out of our bathroom because the sub-floor was deteriorated to a dangerous level. We had the sub-floor replaced but decided that we wanted to paint the bathroom before we had the flooring replaced. Because we were basically lazy fucks (although I like to think that we were just busy), we didn't paint the bathroom until June 2003. Of course, we still have not yet replaced the flooring and I just have rag rugs all over the place in the bathroom so that we don't have to walk around on the plywood. We thought about having someone come in and do it but yesterday we decided that we'd just suck it up and do it ourselves. Next weekend, the long weekend, we'll probably do it. At the same time, we'll put down baseboards in there too. We ripped out the old ones before painting (because the previous owners felt it appropriate to have different trim on each wall).
2. Additional fixtures in the bathroom. We need to install things like a new cabinet for the little old guy, an extra towel bar and some of those old people safety rail deals in the tub. The towel bar and cabinet, we can do ourselves but I know that the LOG is not going to feel too secure if we install the safety rails ourselves (because we are just dumb fucks who couldn't possibly do it write) so we'll have to have those nice folks from the Sh*ppers Drug mart health centre do it. Goodness knows that we wouldn't have clue one about how to find a stud!! On the upside, if they don't do a good job and he falls and injures himself, we can always sue the good folks at the health centre instead of suing ourselves.
3. Fixing up his closet. The bedroom he's moving into is the second largest in the house. It's at the front of the house and has two nice sized windows. It's a really nice room and, when we first moved in here, we used it as an office. The only weirdness in this room is the closet. The hot water heater is in the closet. Our house is about 60 years old and was built on a concrete slab so we don't have a basement. The furnace is under the stairs, in the middle of our kitchen, and the hot water heater is on the other side of the wall from the bath tub. It actually works out really well as it's easy to get to but it does sort of cut into the space in the closet. The closet itself needs a coat of paint and some new shelves. The shelves that are in there now look really craptacular. They don't look like they'd hold much and, because we don't really use the room much, it's been something that has been easy to ignore until now.
4. Throwing out / sorting through crap. He's got a tonne of crap that we'll be getting rid of, either in the garbage or to goodwill. We also have a bunch of crap that is piled up in there and it's all gotta go. Not having a basement has been a blessing and a curse. It's forced us to get rid of a lot of useless shit that we'd otherwise just pack into boxes and toss down there. Right now, our computer room / office is full of the stuff that would ordinarily live in a basement and we're slowly sifting through it. I mean, we're going to keep some of the shit but we're also going to be chucking a lot of it out. Later on this summer, we plan to put a new shed in the yard, at the end of our driveway, where I can store seasonal stuff and things that I need to have to access to but not all of the time. We have an old-school aluminum garden shed that we keep patio furniture, bikes, lawn mower, gardening tools, etc. in but is has stupid sliding doors that freeze up in the winter. The shed I've got my eye on is vinyl and the doors open out. If we put it at the end of the driveway, there will always been a clear path shoveled to it and I can keep stuff like Christmas decorations out there and it won't be a major task to haul them back into the house in December. Installing a shed will also allow us to make the computer room / office into a more pleasant space, possibly even a guest bedroom. We'll see.
5. New ceiling fan. Right now, there is this semi-crappy track lighting that we installed after we painted the room. I've never really cared for it but it was okay for what it was at the time. We want to install a hugger ceiling fan (like the one we put in our bedroom last year) as it really throws the light well and it's a great fan.
6. Doors. As it's been just the two of us, we haven't had any doors upstairs. No two doors matched in this house and they took up way too much space so we just ripped them out when we moved in. In the bathroom and the front bedroom (where LOG will be sleeping), we have curtains up but I'm thinking that we're gonna want doors again. Fortunately, this time, we can purchase doors that actually match and that aren't totally shitty cheap crap that has been pulled out of the dump.
We figure that most of this stuff can be done over the next couple of weekends. Originally, we wanted to rip out the disgusting yellow/gold/puke carpet that is on our stairs and the upstairs landing but we've decided to live with it until we can afford to have it all ripped out and replaced with something nicer. When we first started talking about him moving in last fall, we had a shit load of ideas of things that we were going to do and we've really scaled that down. Partly because of the cash but mostly because of the laziness.
The work will be totally worth it though because it'll mean that our bathroom is finally finished and we'll have a lot less running around to do as far as LOG goes. He currently lives about 7 minutes away from us, in an apartment building that is mostly full of seniors. On a purely cosmetic level, it's a beautiful building. It's well maintained and very safe. It's also about 5 million degrees in there and I don't know how any person can live in it. LOG is always complaining about being short of breath. I suggest, on a regular basis, that this is because there is no air in his home. He also doesn't do anything all day. He watches TV, makes his meals, and that's about it. He lives on the main floor, right next to the lobby, so he doesn't even have far to go to get his mail. When he moves in here, he's going to have to go up and down the stairs several times a day. Hopefully this exercise (and breathing fresh air instead of gross apartment air) will improve his circulation and he'll have more energy than he has now. I know that I'll have more energy. I won't miss running back and forth and back and forth to this apartment. I also think that, as crotchety and mean as we can be, it'll be good for him to have some company. It'll be better for all of us I think. I hope. If it's not, we'll have to figure out a way to deal with it but, I have to say, I won't miss going into the sauna that he lives in. Won't miss it a bit!
Saturday, April 03, 2004
The weekend is off to a slow start. We could have slept in this morning but didn't really. We didn't jump up and out of bed at 5:30 either though. We had a lazy morning of watching tv, munching on some breakfast and not much else. I think that the rest of the day is going to continue along the same lines as it started out.
For the first time ever, I'm playing the Daily Dirt:
Give me your?
1. Top 5 favourite movies:
These aren't actually my top 5 favourites. These are just five favourites that I could think of off of the top of my head:
Dogma, Auntie Mame, Highway 61, Best in Show and Hannah and Her Sisters
2. Top 5 dates:
My birthday, May 13, our anniversary, August 6, Mark's birthday, April 14, Hallowe'en, October 31 and whichever day of the year Mardi Gras happens to fall on.
3. Top 5 drinks:
Water, Diet Coke with Lime, black coffee, frozen lime margaritas and fresh squeezed orange juice.
4. Top 5 TV Shows:
The Simpsons, Coronation Street, The Sopranos, EastEnders and NYPD Blue.
5. Top 5 websites:
Plain Jane, Margaret Cho's Blog, the NY Times online, The Onion and google.
For the first time ever, I'm playing the Daily Dirt:
Give me your?
1. Top 5 favourite movies:
These aren't actually my top 5 favourites. These are just five favourites that I could think of off of the top of my head:
Dogma, Auntie Mame, Highway 61, Best in Show and Hannah and Her Sisters
2. Top 5 dates:
My birthday, May 13, our anniversary, August 6, Mark's birthday, April 14, Hallowe'en, October 31 and whichever day of the year Mardi Gras happens to fall on.
3. Top 5 drinks:
Water, Diet Coke with Lime, black coffee, frozen lime margaritas and fresh squeezed orange juice.
4. Top 5 TV Shows:
The Simpsons, Coronation Street, The Sopranos, EastEnders and NYPD Blue.
5. Top 5 websites:
Plain Jane, Margaret Cho's Blog, the NY Times online, The Onion and google.
Friday, April 02, 2004
There wasn't a Friday Five this week so I found one in the archives, from this week in 2002:
1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day?
When I get out of bed, I scoot to the loo. After that, I pull on my workout gear and head downstairs to do 30-45 minutes of exercise, Monday to Friday anyway. On the weekends, the routine flies out of the window.
2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed?
I brush my teeth, put on some hand cream, turn off the television and kiss my hunny goodnight.
3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day?
I can't think of anything new that I've added to my routine recently.
4. What routine do you wish you could get rid of?
The running back and forth we do to Mark's dad's place. We will be getting rid of this though as he'll be moving in with us next month.
5. What's the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don't do it some point within your day?
Exercise. I never used to do it on a regular basis. For the past 16 months though, I've done it every day and now I find that I really miss it when I can't do it.
On an unrelated note, here's something of vital importance:
Cheese Test: What type of cheese are you?
1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day?
When I get out of bed, I scoot to the loo. After that, I pull on my workout gear and head downstairs to do 30-45 minutes of exercise, Monday to Friday anyway. On the weekends, the routine flies out of the window.
2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed?
I brush my teeth, put on some hand cream, turn off the television and kiss my hunny goodnight.
3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day?
I can't think of anything new that I've added to my routine recently.
4. What routine do you wish you could get rid of?
The running back and forth we do to Mark's dad's place. We will be getting rid of this though as he'll be moving in with us next month.
5. What's the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don't do it some point within your day?
Exercise. I never used to do it on a regular basis. For the past 16 months though, I've done it every day and now I find that I really miss it when I can't do it.
On an unrelated note, here's something of vital importance:
Cheese Test: What type of cheese are you?
Thursday, April 01, 2004
radio radio
I love radio. I'm a radio junkie I guess. I love non-commercial radio, community run or publicly funded. One of the things I love most about the internet is the ability to find community radio stations from far away places that my radio would not be able to pick up. For the past day though, I've broken from my usual "no commercial radio ever" rule and have been listening to Radio Air America. Ads and all, this is terrific radio. It's refreshing to hear folks in the states talking candidly, in public, about how fucked up the shit is in Washington. I mean, I know that no government anywhere is without it's flaws but I'm thankful, on a regular basis that I don't live down south of the border.
Not that things aren't messed up around here. I was reading in the Toronto Star yesterday that they arrested some kids in connection with the anti-Semitic vandalism that happened over the March break. I was saddened, but not shocked, to hear that it was just kids. It struck particularly close to home for us because the cemetery that they smashed up is where Mark's mum is buried (fortunately, her stone was not touched) and Mark's uncle is a member at the Pride of Israel Synagogue which was vandalized. I'm not religious, but I was really upset about this because of the ignorance that is involved in acts like this. My heart broke as I thought about the little old people who would have been going to the cemetery on Sunday morning as part of their weekly ritual, and discovered the damage. People who do things like this are just bullies and I'm happy to hear that they have found and will be prosecuted.
On a happier note, my cold is getting better, little by little and I should be back to good as new by the weekend. Here's hoping anyway.
I love radio. I'm a radio junkie I guess. I love non-commercial radio, community run or publicly funded. One of the things I love most about the internet is the ability to find community radio stations from far away places that my radio would not be able to pick up. For the past day though, I've broken from my usual "no commercial radio ever" rule and have been listening to Radio Air America. Ads and all, this is terrific radio. It's refreshing to hear folks in the states talking candidly, in public, about how fucked up the shit is in Washington. I mean, I know that no government anywhere is without it's flaws but I'm thankful, on a regular basis that I don't live down south of the border.
Not that things aren't messed up around here. I was reading in the Toronto Star yesterday that they arrested some kids in connection with the anti-Semitic vandalism that happened over the March break. I was saddened, but not shocked, to hear that it was just kids. It struck particularly close to home for us because the cemetery that they smashed up is where Mark's mum is buried (fortunately, her stone was not touched) and Mark's uncle is a member at the Pride of Israel Synagogue which was vandalized. I'm not religious, but I was really upset about this because of the ignorance that is involved in acts like this. My heart broke as I thought about the little old people who would have been going to the cemetery on Sunday morning as part of their weekly ritual, and discovered the damage. People who do things like this are just bullies and I'm happy to hear that they have found and will be prosecuted.
On a happier note, my cold is getting better, little by little and I should be back to good as new by the weekend. Here's hoping anyway.
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