The Wacky World of K

Simons.com

2012-01-10T05:42:00.004-05:00

Just before xmas I received an email from a representative at Simons.com offering me the opportunity to give their online store a test run. Of course I jumped at the chance!

If you haven't heard of Simons yet they have a number of beautiful brick & mortar stores in Quebec but I was not aware you could shop online. When I browsed the site I was excited to find items for every budget. After a couple days of browsing the site I was ready to shop! In the end I choose a pair of jeans for my husband. I was very pleased with the selection of colours, sizes & price ranges. I completed the checkout process with ease & received an email confirmation almost immediately after placing my order. The next day I found a shipping confirmation along with a tracking number in another email so I knew exactly when my parcel would arrive.

When I received my package it was more like receiving a gift from a friend then just getting an online order. My purchase was packaged in a sturdy box & wrapped neatly in tissue secured with a Simons leaf-logo sticker. Because I had ordered during the holiday season my order also included a large tote bag printed with the Simons leaves. It wasn't your average freebie tote bag either this was something I wouldn't think twice about paying for. My invoice was inside an envelope. The presentation was beautiful! The jeans I ordered were exactly as described & fit my picky husband perfectly!

I'm thrilled to have discovered a Canadian alternative to Sears since their online shop has been going downhill for the past year or so. All in all I will definitely order from Simons.com again!

Daily Deals ~ New Updated List! Toronto +

2011-01-17T00:11:00.002-05:00

This is my new & improved updated list!
I've found some incredible deals lately!
Cheap Marlie Tickets & cheap Toronto Rock Tickets as well certificates for 50% off at Licks HomeBurgers, 50% off at the Burgers Priest, 50% at Philthy McNastys, 50% off at Kama Classical Indian Cuisine, 50% off at AppleBees, 50% off at Baskin Robbins, 50% off at Elephant & Castle, $30 worth of candy for $15 at Suckers candy shop, 50% off at Jetsun's Juicy Burger & $40 for $100 worth of goodies from The Butchers at Yonge & Eglinton!
I've also found great deals that came in handy during our recent visit to Niagara Falls & tons of awesome deals for our next trip to New Orleans!
I also signed up for a deal getting a discount on a membership at HouseSeats which gives me access to free tickets for many shows & exhibits around town! At first I was a bit wary but I've seen a ton of great stuff up for offer already!
HouseSeats
I can't help it!! I'm addicted to Daily Deals!

I'm trying to compile a list of all the Daily Deal websites available for Toronto. I know I've already missed a bunch of fab deals because there are so many new sites are popping up.

So far my list includes...

LivingDeal
DealGetters
Dealicious
CaptainSave
PriceDodger
DealTicker
StealTheDeal
FabFind
TeamBuy
BuyTopia
DealFind
GroupOn
WagJag
TeamSave
RedFlagDeals
Snaggies
LivingSocial
EveryBodyBuys
DealDipp
DealsGoneSocial
DealSharing
SwarmJam
UrbanDeal
HouseSeats
WebPiggy
Kijiji Deals
PathDeals
DealsToEnjoy

Most of these sites also contain daily deals for other cities in Canada & many contain deals for the USA so have fun shopping!

If anyone has any sites to add please feel free to email me at WackyWorldofK at Bell dot Net or leave a comment here!
Happy Shopping!!

A Discount Xmas

2010-11-24T23:47:00.008-05:00

I've decided that there are so many great deals swimming around I will never again shop without using a discount code, coupon or some sort of customer loyalty program.

I signed up for daily deal email alerts at WagJag.com, Groupon.com & LivingDeal.com & every day I receive a heads up in my inbox about all sorts of great deals! If you haven't heard about them yet, Groupon, WagJag & other similar sites offer wicked discounts for a short period of time, usually 24 hours but sometimes a few days or a week. The idea is to offer discounts normally reserved for groups to individual people. Most deals have a tipping point where a certain number of people have to purchase the deal before the discount is live. If the deal does not get enough people they don't charge your credit card...that has yet to happen to me!! Most of the deals I've seen are so awesome they sell tons!

I've recently received offers allowing me to buy $50 worth of online cheese for $25 & $20 worth of Body Shop goodies for $10, every little bit of saved money helps at xmas time! At Halloween, we bought discounted tickets for both Halloween Haunt at Wonderland & Screemers at the CNE grounds! Gotta love saving money!

I've even been using deals & discounts to make our annual trip to New Orleans a little less painful. Last year I purchased both the Toronto & New Orleans editions of the Entertainment books. Entertainment books are filled with great coupons for restos, local attractions & member discounts. I also discovered a site called restaurant.com where you can order $25 gift certificates at tons of restaurants in the USA for-get this-$10!! That's like eating $15 worth of free food!! Free food always tastes better. Unfortunately it hasn't expanded into Canada yet but maybe that's a good thing for my (now much smaller) waistline! Signing up for their emails also gives me discount codes that allow me to buy the exact same $25 gift certificates for $5, $3 or even $2!! Insane! I even get the Groupon email alert for New Orleans & I've already purchased half price admission to the Audubon Aquarium & a couple of tours that I've always wanted to do but never had the cash for!

Some Exciting News!

2010-06-28T23:58:00.006-04:00

Hey y'all, I'm back from a mini blog vacay to let you know about an awesome set of online stores! I was lucky enough to have been contacted by someone at the CSN group of shops asking if I'd like to do a product review. Of course I jumped at the chance! I've visited their sites quite a few times after noticing a link on another blog ealier this year. The number of items they have is a bit overwhelming at first. You really need to sit down & take the time to browse all your options cause there are tons & tons!!

My hubby & I just completed a massive house painting project & nothing makes you re-consider your lighting choices like slapping a new colour on your walls!
I was checking out their massive selection of wall sconces & we've decided on getting a pair of sconces in a dark oil-rubbed bronze finish for our stairway & upstairs hall. The dark colour of the bronze should look fab with the sweet pale blue we've chosen!
With so many choices we haven't narrowed it down completely yet but my readers will be the first to know what we decide on & I'll snap a few pics when they goes up!

Teaser...Stay tuned for my very first blog contest!!

I'm excited to announce that the good people at CSNStores.com are letting me do a giveaway this summer!
Keep reading for more info!
You can follow me on Twitter @WackyWorldofK so you don't miss the big announcement!
This is gonna be awesome!

Bell Canada & their Merry Band of Thieves

2010-03-25T16:12:00.004-04:00

My husband (& I) just got off the phone with Bell Canada. He spoke to 5 different people in the course of an hour & 20 minutes. I'm wondering if we spoke to the only 5 morons at Bell or if they only hire morons.

I have a beautiful PURPLE cell phone. It's an LG Reveal & it's absolutely gorgeous. Bell was the only cell phone carrier that I could find that offered it. I spent 8 mostly wonderful years with Rogers but this phone was so pretty I couldn't resist so I switched. Now I'm seriously regretting it.

Bell Mobility offered a two month free trial of their web browser. I signed up for it & canceled on time so I didn't get charged for anything beyond the trial. January's bill showed $15.75 of "mobile browser" charges, I just figured I screwed up & didn't cancel in time. February's bill showed another $12.17 in mobile browser charges. I KNOW FOR A FACT that no one used the phone for anything other than a few phone calls & a few text messages (the texts were billed separately) so I went back & looked at the previous bill & noticed a pattern in the time of day the browser was accessed...

The phone accessed the browser in regular intervals BY ITSELF! We don't have any children & there are only two of us in the house. My husband works nights & I don't think the cats are very tech savvy. The first Bitch (I use bitch cause no one seems to like the C-word) we spoke to at Bell was a waste of life she flat out REFUSED to transfer us to her supervisor. After some prodding she sent us through to tech support who poo-poo us & transfered us back to customer service to have the bullshit charges taken off our last two bills (we are still waiting on March's bill) but that guy said that Bell saw them as valid charges & would not remove them, I asked him to totally disable browser access from the phone. Of course he said that was impossible. He sent us back to tech support who we again asked to disable access, he also refused but sent us back to cust service where FINALLY the girl admitted that she could in fact disable the browser but still refused to remove the charges.

I'm furious that they all refuse to believe that the phone accessed the browser by itself. They all insisted that we "pushed the wrong button" or "went on by accident" I've had cell phones for at least 13 years & I know whether or not "I've pushed the wrong button". It's to the point now where I will only turn on the phone a few times a month because every time the power is on we get hit with data charges. I don't play games, chat, send picture messages & I've never downloaded ringtones or screen savers. I don't surf or update facebook or check my email. I make the odd call & send the odd text massage. The only thing I can think of is that it's the weather or news app updating itself but I'm not using either one, I've removed them ages ago but I can't find a way to delete them forever so they are still lurking on the phone somewhere. They were pre-installed.

I started keeping track of days I turned the phone on, when I made or received a call or text message & when my phone was sitting on the bookcase or tucked away in my purse with the phone closed up so no buttons are even exposed & no matter what I do the mobile browser charges appear. I just did a google search & I found many others who this same thing has happened to.

So FUCK YOU Bell!! I'm going to continue to fight this & I WILL GET MY MONEY BACK & as soon as my contract is up I'm going back to Rogers!!

Bloggers Guilt / GnR Show

2010-01-29T19:36:00.004-05:00

I keep meaning to write something but I never get around to it. I still (as you can see) haven't figured out how to fix my header image...maybe I'll work on that tonight.

Last night hubby & I went to the Guns & Roses show at the ACC. I didn't know what to expect but Axl still has the voice. My first real concert was the GnR/Metallica show at the Exhibition Stadium a million years ago. I was 15-16, just a baby. I was there with an artist I was dating & hubby was there with his first girlfriend. We didn't know each other back then, we met many years later but it's still funny to think back & know we were both there...just not together.
Fate has a funny way of working stuff out.
Hubby's high school was right beside mine. They were separated by a park. He's two years older than me so we were next to each other for two years & didn't know it. I spent many, many days skipping school hanging out in that park. Sometimes I wonder if I ever noticed him or if he ever noticed me. Life is weird.
He worked every summer on the Giant Wheel at the CNE. Sometimes I'd go 8 times a season. I loved the rides, loved the greasy fair food...& the greasy boys we'd sometimes meet. Hubby & I must have interacted at some point, I'd never visit the EX & not go on the wheel. I guess we had to wait for the time to be right to meet.

Anyways back to the show. Danko Jones & Sebastien Bach were opening. We had no interest in seeing them so we left late. Sebastien Bach was on when we got there so we shared a slice of nasty pizza & drank some beers before we took our seat. I have to say I was a bit embarrassed when I recognized some of the older songs, from his Skid Row days. He's a name dropper, he kept mentioning touring with this band & that band back in the day. I wanted to slap him when he mentioned Pantera...he's just not worthy enough to speak that name. Hubby & I decided that the only thing worse than never being famous at all is to be a has-been.

Axl was late, we expected that. They played the entire Pantera album, Vulgar Display of Power between acts. I was actually thinking that I'd be disappointed if GnR came on & cut Pantera short but the album ended before Axl graced us with his presence. He sounded good, the band was tight but we weren't familiar with any of their-his really-new material. We rolled in about 3am, a little tipsy but still functioning. I don't think we'd bother seeing them again but Motley Crue is playing next week...I know they're selling 2for1 tix & we haven't seen them for years either...hmmmm.

uggggggggg.

2010-01-17T22:14:00.004-05:00

My beautiful blog is all messed up & I'm not clever enough to figure out how to fix it. My most recent attempt is only slightly better than Imageshack's evil message saying "do not hotlink large images". I left it alone for a bit hoping it would fix itself but it didn't so please excuse the ugliness of my half-assed fix until I figure how to resize my header-thingy. Screw Imagshack.

I've been meaning to get back in the habit of bogging regularly but I've been so disgustingly lazy lately. I was so busy over the holidays that now I have some time to myself I haven't wanted to do anything.
Today is the 17th & we JUST took our tree down this afternoon. All of our other xmas decorations are still up...including our four 3' mini trees. sigh. The house should be back to normal by February though!

Yesterday we watched the Saints kick some ass! We're hoping they win their next game...we're planning a massive SuperBowl party & it'll be nice to actually have a team we care about playing for once. Football is such an American thing. We've been to a few Argos games over the years & we went to Hamilton for some cup-thing once...can't remember the name but it was freezing & we were very-very drunk...Vanier maybe? We didn't see our first NFL game until we saw the Saints play in New Orleans back in 2006. I'm looking to buy us a pair of jerseys for us but they're pretty expensive. I want a Shockey one but I can only find Brees in the ladies sizes.
I've always said the two worst things about SuperBowl parties are chili & football...I'm hoping this year will be different!

Better late than never...better never than late??
x-mas K's way!

Making Christmas - BathBomb CuppyCakes

2009-12-03T00:07:00.019-05:00

These are sooo pretty! Hubby bought me one from Doll Factory by Damzels this summer & I loved it. You know what they say about imitation being the most sincere from of flattery! Doll Factory has tons of wild & wacky goodies, funky baby wear & gorgeous dresses! If you're in Toronto you should drop by & check them out. I wish I wasn't such a loser so I could afford to buy everything in the shop!

...back to the cuppycakes. I feel a tiny bit of guilt over stealing this idea but I rationalized it by knowing that a million people are already copying it on etsy & they're making money from it. I'm only making x-mas gifties!

This is my recipe...
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup citric acid
2 tablespoons of oil*
3/4 tablespoon of water
3/4 tablespoon of glycerin
1/2 teaspoon of essential or scented oil**
& a few drops of liquid colouring.

*For oil I used a body blend but you can use grapeseed, almond or whatever
**For scent I used very vanilla from Aquarius Aroma it DOES NOT smell like true vanilla! At first I was disappointed but in bath bombs it smells ridiculously like white cake batter, yum it's perfect!

Instructions...
- Mix the dry stuff first then add the wet stuff but mix it super-quick so you don't use up the bubbley goodness.
- The mixture should still be fairly dry & crumbly but damp enough that if you grab a handful & squeeze it will hold it's shape. If you screw up either add a bit more oil or water to make it wetter or a bit more baking soda to dry it up if it's too wet. It's pretty forgiving.
- Scoop the mixture into mini-cupcake/muffin tins & pack it down. The tighter it's packed the longer it will last in your tubby! I used the bottom of a shot glass to squish it down evenly.
- Let it set for a couple minutes then turn the tin upside-down onto a tea towel or a sheet of paper toweling & tap the bottom of each bump to knock the "cake" out.
- Carefully turn each "cake" upright & let them dry overnight. Don't squeeze them too hard or they will crumble!
- Frost them! I used a bastard version of royal icing. I mixed random amounts of icing sugar, egg whites & a bit of cream of tartar. You want a really hard, firm frosting, if it's too wet the tops of your bombs will start fizzing. I have a recipe somewhere but I can't find it. You can google one if you're worried but I'm not, it's not like anybody is gonna eat it. As long as it looks pretty & gets hard you're golden. I'm not very good with a piping bag so I used a cookie press to make pretty frosting swirls!

When you're sure they are completely dry (I'm leaving mine out for a day or two) package them up. I'm wrapping mine in cellophane tied with a ribbon but you can use you imagination here. A little bakery box would be a fab way to package 2 or 4 bath cuppycakes. If your frosting isn't too high you could probably fit one or two in truffle boxes!

Be sure to include a little tag letting your friends know not to eat them. I was sure hubby was gonna pop one in his mouth when he saw them tonight. I don't think there is anything in them that could kill him but it's always better to be safe than sorry!

Making Christmas

2009-12-01T23:29:00.001-05:00

Since I'm still wandering aimlessly in the land of the unemployed we're trying to not go overboard this x-mas. This is a very hard thing for me to do. Overboard is my middle name. I thought we'd save a bit of cash by DIY-ing a bunch of goodies for the gals on our list. As in past years I've ended up spending just as much if not more on DIY materials but we're not going to think about that. I'd make stuff for the boys on our list too but I don't have a clue about what types of handmade goodies a guy would enjoy.

Over the next few weeks I'll post my crafty projects. I'll try & post step-by-step instructions but I don't have the teacher gene so they may be hard to follow. If you get stuck send me a message & I'll try & talk you through it. But don't worry, most of my projects are super-easy so they shouldn't be that tough to figure out. Hell, if they were too tricky I wouldn't have the patience for them.

This year I'm making bracelets, necklaces, bath bombs, bath bomb cuppycakes, bath salt, glass magnets, sugar scrub, bubble bath, shower gel & body lotion. Fuck, why do I start these things. My head is so ambitious but my crazy makes me lazy.

I've already started a few projects but I still have tons to do. My head hurts already.

I'm Baaaack...

2009-09-23T14:18:00.003-04:00

Good news kiddies!
It's almost Fall & you know what that means? It means that over the next month or so I'll have the time/energy to post regularly again.

We had a great summer. Some of the highlights were - we...spent a weekend in Niagara Falls for our third anniversary, saw Rancid play at the Molson Amp, went to EdgeFest for the first time in years cause my cousins-es band was playing, went to the CNE twice, attended Still Life Still's album release party, went to V-Fest at the Molson Amp to see Nine Inch Nails, relaxed at the cottage, met Down, got re-married & booked our fourth annual trip to New Orleans!
Will update soom with pics & stories!

Stay tuned!!

Life & Death

2009-05-31T22:35:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke up hungover to a neighbour sobbing & screaming uncontrollably & the street filled with emergency vehicles. They've only lived on our street for a year so we don't know them but last night a woman in the house overdosed on something & died. We're not sure if she was a guest or if she lived there but how awful for the family.

It really makes me think about all the ridiculous stuff I've done over the years. I've taken quite a few stupid risks but I never think that they could have killed me. I can't imagine a worse thing for a family to deal with than the unexpected death of a loved one.

All I've been hearing about lately is death. The two guys that were missing have both been found in the lake, one at Ontario Place & the other in the Portlands. Police are still searching for the body of the little girl that disappeared from Woodstock almost two months ago & a friend of my cousins who happened to have been the son of one of my dad's friends just committed suicide, he was in his early 20's. It really reminds you of how precious life is.

Crafty-Craft - wind chimes

2009-05-29T20:33:00.000-04:00

We've been busy gussying up the yard in preparation for BBQ season. I was thinking about how sad my fork & spoon wind chime was looking. I made it ages ago & every year I have to find & re-attach a fork or two that had fallen off over the winter. I used mis-matched silver plate cutlery from value village but they started to look really grimy.

I thought I'd clean it up & restring the dangling bits but once I cut the old strings off I decided to take it to another level! I went upstairs to get my glass bead keeper & some jewelery wires & I added large crystal beads to each string & smaller dangling beads to some of the twisted fork tines.

I'm so pleased with how it turned out it motivated me to find the half-finished chime I started to make for my step-sister & finish it up!

999 - the Re-Wedding

2009-05-28T22:44:00.003-04:00

Wow, I forgot how many headaches were involved with planning a wedding. This one is just going to be a small family ordeal. I figured a half-sized wedding would only cause a few headaches but nope, they're still just as bad as they were the first time around.

Hubby still hasn't talked to his priest so I can't even be sure that our 999 date is going to work. He was supposed to talk to him this morning but he wasn't in the church yet. He was going to talk to him months ago but we figured we had tons of time...but time has flown. I have my save the dates designed already, I just need the date confirmed before I order them.

Almost immediately after I order the save the date cards...oh these ones are gonna be special...I have to have the invites printed. The friggen invites are just over $300 for 25, I've searched & searched but I can't seem to find anything I like better...or even as well. The damn invite company sent me a sample but I wanted a sample of the whole invite with the envie included not just the invite portion. I figure for 300+ bucks that's the least they can do. Now I have the awful job of picking out the wording, they're all so cheesey sounding. Ten bucks says they aren't even gonna have a verse just like last time!

Then there's the business of the dress. I was going to wear white this time since I wore black last time. BUT I found one in dark purple so now I have to decide whether or not I want to stick with my original vision of classic black & white or if I should go with something completely different.

arrrrggggg.

living the life of the little woman

2009-05-27T20:53:00.001-04:00

Well, it's been six months now since I've had a job. I finally got my ROE & my vacation pay so I'm going to see if I can still get unemployment. I have no idea why it took the asses at the office six months to get their paper work in order.

Hubby has been such a good boy. He hardly ever bugs me about not working & I think he kinda likes having someone around to cook & clean for him. I admit I'm still not very good at the cleaning part but our living spaces are kept very neat. This is the kingdom of dust & cat hair. Our vacuum died yesterday. I'm pissed, we haven't even had it for 9 months yet & we only vacuum the stairs, upstairs hallway & our bedroom. The two other bedrooms have/had carpet but there was so much crap stored in them we couldn't see the floor & everything else in the house is either hardwood or ceramic tile. Fuck Eureka. Hubby is supposed to call Sears but he's as lazy as me so we're probably just going to buy a new one.

I made my first ever prime rib roast today. Boy, was it ever good. I did broccoli, roast potatoes, parisian carrots & gravy too. Everything turned out great & was done at the same time. Having everything done at once is something I struggle with when I'm cooking more than three things! Parisian carrots are so cute, I could eat them all day. Hubby picked them up cause he thought they looked neat. I love parisian potatoes but I had never seen carrots cut like that. We usually get baby carrots. I recently found out that baby carrots are not in fact baby carrots at all but are monster, fucked up or half rotten carrots that they chop up & sell to morons like myself.
Ah, ignorance is bliss!

Bra Shopping

2009-05-26T23:39:00.001-04:00

Do all bra designers smoke crack? Why else would they think padding is a good idea for C & D cup sizes? I hate bra shopping, all the pretty bras have a layer of foam rubber in them & every company has their own idea of what size a 36D should be. Why aren't sizes standardized?

I hit Winners first, I grabbed every bra they had in sizes 36-38C & 36-38D except for the white/cream/pink ones & the padded ones, I ended up with 6 bras. Not one of them fit. They were either too tight, too loose or made my tits look pointy. La Senza was a complete waste of my time, they didn't have a single underwire bra that wasn't lined with some type of (possibly flammable) padding. I'm sure padded bras are a great idea for A & B sized cups but why on earth would someone think that gals with C & D's want to look larger? La Senza makes cute panties & other frillies but their bras suck ass, plus there was a creepy bald guy hanging around the shop waiting for his girl to get out of the change room. It wouldn't have been bad if he wasn't staring at all the other shoppers. ewww.

I ended up going to Zellers. Oh how I hate Zellers, it's so sketchy. I managed to find five bras in my size range. I took them into to one of the change rooms to try & I found an empty prescription pill bottle on the dirty little chair. Nice, but that's Gerrard Square for ya. We affectionately call it welfare square & when Toronto had the SARS problem a few years back we called it SARS square. Years ago when the Home Depot was still a Sears I remember going into a change room once & finding blood smeared down the wall.

Anyways, I ended up with two bras. They were pretty cheap, $47 for both, they should keep the girls under control until I can find something better.

That House...part two

2009-05-25T19:00:00.002-04:00

Our neighbourhood welfare house has bedbugs. I feel itchy.
Last month the house was fumigated. There was a red tarp with a round porthole over the front doorway, a big fan industrial fan set up on the front porch & all the windows were closed. The windows are never closed there, why would you close the windows in winter if you didn't have to pay your heating bill?

Last week one of them got a new mattress & box spring set. We watched them tear the plastic off & then zip both the mattress & boxspring up in white, ill-fitting covers. Today a truck dropped off two more sets & they've been sitting on their front lawn since 10am. Just now a guy came & dropped off a bag of mattress covers & they've just started putting the mattresses in the covers & hauling them into the house.

Free mattresses...must be nice, every time we look at the residents they are smoking & often drinking & the chick that lives there is always on her cell phone. Maybe living on welfare isn't as awful as the anti-poverty activists would like us to believe. Except for the bedbug part life sounds good.

How would you like to live next door to this?

Swimmy Doo-ey

2009-05-23T18:50:00.002-04:00

Well we've had a few hot days in a row now so I decided to haul Poo-eys pool out of the garage. I was afraid it had gotten damaged over the winter but it's still in good shape.

Doo loves swimming! He sticks his face right under the water trying to bite the cartoon doggies on the bottom of the pool. When he's super hot he even lays down in the water. When he was a pup he would try to swim in his water dish. My mom can't even water her lawn without him trying to run through the spray. He's silly.

I haven't taken any swimmy pics yet this year but here are a couple from last summer.

Co-BBQ

2009-05-21T21:35:00.002-04:00

It was such a gorgeous day today. Hubby stayed up til almost 5 & we spent the afternoon sitting on the deck relaxing. Eventually my mom & her hubby came out to sit with us. We thought it would be nice to eat outside so for tonights dinner my Mom & I did a co-BBQ.

My mom provided the steaks, potatoes & veggie skewers & I chipped in a package of boneless ribs, red onions & peppers for the skewers & grated cheese for the baked potatoes. Neither of us had any sour cream, she ran out & mine had expired three days ago. Sour cream is a big part of the baked potato experience but I had a full bag of tex-mex already-grated cheese. Hubby picked it up for taco & fajita days cause sometimes we're too lazy to grate out own. We have one of those spiffy Ikea graters, the blue plastic tub base with two different grater tops & a lid. Grating cheese with it takes forever, I can use my Kitchen Aid food-pro but I lose the time I save grating washing the damn thing. Anyways grated cheese on a baked tater is awesome, the only thing that could have made it better would have been having the sour cream too...& maybe some chives!

My mom & I are a great team. She did the skewer threading & prep work. I wiped clean & set the patio table & set out the condiments, mommy's hubby did the BBQ-ing & I just finished up the dishes. We have big BBQ's & parties a few times a year, our decks & backyards are super-tiny but using both of them gives us just enough space. When our family & friends get together we have a blast...& we make a mess. People are shocked when they see how quickly we can get the yards back in order. It's the buddy system, our hubbies usually retreat into the house or have already passed out by clean up time but we get it done fast! Of course I like to punish my hubby for sleeping through the clean up so I always make sure to leave him with some dishes to do the next morning!

Middle room mess

2009-05-20T23:45:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how much crap I still have. We got rid of so much stuff earlier this year & last but I still don't have room to move around in the middle room.

Last night I started sorting all the stuff that already had a place to go into piles, a lot of the clutter this time round already has a home but ended up on the floor rather than getting put away. This should make my chore a bit easier. I was gonna post a pic but I'm kinda embarrassed, it's really bad, you can barely see the floor.

I have a few empty storage boxes from my last purge so if it's gets out of control I'm just going to start stuffing things in boxes. It's amazing how clutter makes me crazy. I'm already starting another donation pile with items that I didn't want to get rid of three months ago. Junk makes me do strange things.

Queen of the BathTub

2009-05-19T22:14:00.004-04:00

I am the Queen of the Bathtub!

Since I've been sick I've taken at least one bath a day. I'm not talkin' about a 15 minute scrub-a-dub-dub. I'm talking about a BATH. Since I've been taking a bath a day I've gotten back in the habit of reading a book a day so you can guess how long one of my baths are. The last time I was reading a book a day was when I still had my office job & I haven't been there for months now.

I love reading, I love the escape books bring. My mind is always on the go, I have trouble sleeping at night because my mind won't stop thinking thoughts. When I'm reading my mind calms down & I only (mostly) think about what the words say. I have the worlds shortest attention span but put a good book in front of me & I'm done.

I don't like watching movies cause my mind wanders. If I do I prefer to watch a DVD cause I can pause it as soon as I stop paying attention. One of the ways I can keep interested in a movie is adding my own lines. Buuuut that makes me really unpopular in movie-land. Hubby can't stand it & when I'm home alone watching my cats look at me like I'm nuts when I talk (or shout) at the tv. Cats seem to know something is squirrelly when people talk when there are no other people around.

I'm going to visit my tubby now...

Introducing my half-done re-crazy room!

2009-05-17T14:40:00.007-04:00

I've got most of my crafty tools & books crammed into my bookcase so I thought now would be a good time to snap a few pics & give y'all a half-way-done update! When we started our big purge I yardsaled & donated a bunch of my dated (like dried flower crafts & ribbon embroidery...shudder!) craft books so I only kept a small selection of books on subjects I'm interested in. I have craft stuff scattered around the house in boxes & in closets so I haven't managed to group everything in one spot yet but I still have space & can make room for more if need be.

We still have a lot of work to do. We need to pick out a desk, wallpaper the wall behind the dresser & bookcase, install the floor, frame the window & hook up the chandelier. I'm still sick & we've made arraignments to spend a weekend in Niagara Falls for our anniversary in June but hopefully we can at least get the floor in & the chandelier wired up before we leave. The other stuff can wait a bit longer.

I'm feeling a bit less anxious about the mess in the middle room now that I've been able to put some of my crap away. I had it almost clutter-free but it's turned into a massive problem again since a lot of the stuff we moved out of the crazy room was stored there. I'm going to go back up in a bit (after I hit the beer store!) to start working on finding homes for things.

The room is so tiny it's hard to get a good pic...the second pic is two pics that I 'stitched' togther so it looks twisted & those black spaces don't really exist.

meaty-loaf

2009-05-16T23:07:00.006-04:00

I was only having a Campbell's Gardennay soup for supper but I decided that hubby still needed a meal that would stick to his ribs. We have hamburger, eggs & Italian style bread-crumbs so I decided to make him a meatloaf.

I've never made meatloaf before, I've never even eaten meatloaf before. I think it's disgusting but hubby used to eat it in his old life. Now that I've made one I realize that it's kinda like a giant meatball. I used a pound of hamburger, a cup of breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, crushed garlic, pepper flakes, a chopped onion & two eggs.

I mixed everything together & formed it into a loaf shape & painted it with ketchup. I made hubby green beans & rustic mashed* potatoes to go with his treat. He loved it! He asked me if I wanted to try it but I couldn't, it's still meatloaf even if it doesn't seem so bad now that I've made it myself. *my rustic mashed potatoes are boiled new potatoes (red or white) with the skin still on but scrubbed well-smashed up with a bit of milk, a lot of butter, S&P & some crushed garlic. Yum!

The only problem I ran into was that it stuck to the bottom of my pan but it was nothing a little scrub with a sos pad couldn't take care of. The best part is that he has enough loaf left over to use in sammies for tomorrow!

anni-plannies

2009-05-15T21:38:00.006-04:00

I just finished booking our anniversary weekend getaway. I got an email listing a bunch of Niagara Falls packages so hubby & I visited the site to check them out. The last time we were there was probably around 10 years ago so we thought it would be a neat way to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. This is actually a very special year for us. Come October we will have been together for thirteen years! 13 is a super-lucky number in my book!

It looks like a lot has changed, they even have a ferris wheel now! Hubby loves ferris wheels, he worked on the Giant Wheel at the CNE for over a decade of summers when he was younger. When we first started dating I started buying him toy wheels & antique postcards featuring long-gone wheels.

The package we chose is two nights at the roach hotel, a $30 voucher for Kelsey's, full brekkie each morn & tix to a bunch of the cheesy attractions on Clifton Hill. We get tickets for one of the wax museums, mini golf, the ferris wheel, Ripley's believe it or not & tokens for the midway arcade. Sounds like our kinda fun! Oooh, & we're taking the train up...I love the train!

Sometimes the falls themselves are just not enough, You hafta visit some of the wax museums & haunted houses! We were going to go on our actual anniversary, June sixth, it's a Saturday this year but when I thought of all the families who'd be hauling their filthy kiddies to the falls for the weekend we changed our minds. We're going from Sunday to Tuesday now, hopefully all the childrens will be at home in school so we can have a pleasant holiday. The last time we visited the falls we ran into a real life hell-child. Serves us right for eating at the Golden Griddle...we haven't been back since, we walked out & found an awesome little Mexican resto instead, maybe it'll still be there!

I've never been to Kelsey's but in our quest to avoid this being a $1000 weekend we used some of our airmiles to get a $50 gift card for Kelsey's & two $50 cards for Boston Pizza. We've never been to Boston Pizza either but most of those chain-style restaurants aren't too bad. We usually avoid chains but hey it's Niagara Falls, it's supposed to be cheesy!

I searched other packages before we booked cause I don't like the look of the rooms, it looks clean enough but it's like it just fell out of the 80's. None of the other hotels had packages that had stuff we're interested in so I sucked it up & booked the ugly place. But really how much time will we spend in our room anyway, it's not like I'd sit in a hotel whirlpool (germs-shudder) or get a mani-pedi...even if we did book at the Hilton.

I'm so excited! I'm already planning what to bring in my head!

laziness blows

2009-05-14T19:22:00.006-04:00

Sorry faithful readers, I've totally been neglecting my blog lately. I still feel pretty shitty but life around the house is slowly getting back to normal, I just have no energy. I've spent a good portion of each day in the tub reading. I'm actually on my way back up now. I know it's a massive waste of water but I can sit in the tub & read for hours.

Yesterday I didn't get out until I had read an entire pocket-book (suspense-thriller), even my toes were shriveled up. Our cats come to watch me while I bathe. Sometimes they'll stand up at the side of the tub & look at the water & then turn to stare at me with that what-the-fuck-are-doing look on their little kitty faces. One time Mo was interested in my bubbles so I fished out a small handful & set them on the tiles for him. He slowly came over & took a big sniff...the bubbles went straight up his nose & he was gone in a flash. It took him ages to be brave enough to come back in the bathroom.

Off I go...blub...blub...blub!

**here's a couple more spring garden pics!

still alive...

2009-05-12T23:38:00.003-04:00

Well, I guess I won't be dead by Thursday after all. The worst of my sickness seems to be over. Yesterday I wandered over to crappy tire to buy a curtain rod & when I got home I felt well enough to cook dinner for hubby, do the dishes & put away 4 loads of laundry that had been sitting in laundry baskets for days. I've been avoiding the elliptical but I'm climbing back on tonight. Hopefully life will be completely back to normal tomorrow. Being sick has one good point though, I'm down 8 lbs since April 27th. Now that I want to eat real food again, I've got to try to keep it off! + lose more!

I have the curtains hung in the crazy room. Against the purple walls they look more brown than black but I'm happy with them anyway. Later on tonight I'm going to start filling the bookcase & I should have a couple pics of the room up by Friday. Still need to frame the window, install the floor, hang the chandelier & buy a desk. We've fallen behind again but this time it's my fault.

Today I did what people with no money do. I went shopping & spent $180 on shirts. I need new shirts like I need a hole in the head but I bought five. A tank, cami, tee, long-sleeve tee & a hoodie. I managed to control myself & didn't pick up any sundresses since I have four from last year that I barely wore, plus a brand new one I bought just after x-mas. I'm ready for anything now...well, I could always use a few more pairs of capris...& shoes, a gal can never have too many pairs of shoes...

***a few more spring garden pics

Lawn pisser?

2009-05-08T23:58:00.006-04:00

The very last thing I do every night before I go to bed is check the front & back doors to make sure they are locked. Last night after I had turned all the lights & the tv off, I checked the back door & went to check the front. I heard the sound of laughter & the clicking of someone running in heels. I peeked out the window just in time to see a bitch run up on my mom's front lawn with her thumbs hooked into the waistband of her skinny jeans. Mind you it wasn't really that late yet just past 1 maybe 2 at the latest. She started to squat & take her pants down so I tapped on the window as hard as I could. She screamed & almost fell over trying to get away. She ran back to her two friends telling them what had happened. My house & my moms house are less than ten houses from an alley. Why would some chick choose to piss on a lawn rather than in a corner or behind a car in the laneway. Weirdo. I told my mom the next morning & she said that she had her front window open & had heard the commotion but didn't bother to look. She told me if she had of saw she would have yelled to the other girls "curb your dog!" my mom is so funny!

Today was summer. Hubby & I spent the day in the backyard hanging out. He picked up the new HankIII cd. I hate country music...I mean I really hate country music but Hank rocks. We saw them play at the House of Blues in New Orleans a couple years back. It was Nashville Pussy, Reverend Horton Heat & HankIII. Hank & his band/s were awesome. They played three sets, a country set, something else but the last one was called AssJack. They were really heavy, it was some wild shit, we had a blast!

Hubby is a sweetie. He bought my mom a Sarah McLaughlin cd for mother's day. We had already bought her a duvet cover bag in a bag set so it was extra sweet of him.
We finally finished painting, hubby finished the last coat on the walls & I did the trim. All that's left to be painted is the door. I can finally say that we are at the half way point! It feels so good to have the furniture out of the hall. I'll post a pic of the room once it's tidied up a bit.

here are some spring garden pics...

Arrrrggghhhh

2009-05-07T23:34:00.004-04:00

I'm sick. My head & chest ache & I've been coughing all day. So much that I've shredded my throat. I caught it from hubby, I knew I should have made him sleep on the floor! I thought he was bullshitting me about being dizzy last week cause he didn't want to paint the ceiling again. I feel like the room is spinning...or maybe it's my cough syrup...it expired last July. Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...right. It's non-drowsy, that is the only reason I still have some left. When I run out of sleeping pills, & I often do, I've been known to take neo-citron, gravol or random cough syrup. I always take a double dose.

Last year I thought I had killed myself. I took some expired cough syrup (drowsy formula!) but I used the measuring cap off another bottle. The cap was two tablespoons & I took two caps full but when I read the bottle I was supposed to take two teaspoons. Oops. But in the middle of the night I got all paranoid & weird. I couldn't sleep so I cleaned the whole house. I was afraid the robbers were gonna come in the night to kill me. It was pretty funky.

As for my new purple room, we have four coats on the ceiling & walls now. Hubby is doing one more tomorrow & we should be fine. Today I did first coat on all the trim. I really shot myself in the foot this time. I was doing the trim black so I was sloppy with the purple cause I figured the black would cover it but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to leave the baseboard white. I spent two hours carefully painting out the purple. I don't like pokey jobs like painting trim, I just want to slap it on & be done with it.

here's purple!

What a night!

2009-05-06T01:09:00.007-04:00

I had just settled down to watch House & I heard an awful noise out front. Being the nosey bitch that I am I went to check it out.

Three guys were almost standing on my lawn looking up at the house across the street. I saw a raccoon on the high roof but when I looked more carefully I saw a tiny baby raccoon on the lower roof. Wow, was the noise it made ever strange...& loud! It sounded like a cross between a chirp, a purr & a scream. The baby was super-small, about the size of a squirrel. It was trying to climb up to get to it's mom & the mom was trying to get down to it. My asshole neighbours were shining flashlights on the baby so the mom was too scared to come down.

After a while two of the guys went inside & a girl from up the street came out with her flashlight. Later she went home to get a broom & one of those grabby-hand-trigger things. Let me tell you if she had of touched the baby with that tool I'd have run over there to slap her.

Anyways, my neighbours didn't understand that that mama wanted her baby but she was too afraid to come down cause they were so close. I was going to shout at them but figured that would scare the mama too. At some point some cunt came down the street walking her little dog...you all know how I feel about little dogs...oh & the little dog was off-leash...you all know how I feel about off-leash dogs...the little barking dog ran right up to the house. The cunt did nothing to shush it even though it was well past eleven at night & it was 6 feet from someones front door. She stood there with her stupid little barking dog for close to ten minutes, then they left. Man, some people are assholes!

Eventually the neighbours backed off far enough for the mom to feel safe enough to come down & grab her baby. The last I saw of them she was pulling him across the peak of the high roof. I guess the baby snuck out of his nest & took a tumble. I'm glad he didn't fall all the way down. It's that time of year though, as a child I can't remember how many times my dad got the ladder out to put a baby squirrel or birdie back in it's nest. Two springs in a row I found baby squirrels with squished moms that I took to the humane society. They hate me, I found a live chicken on the corner of Jones & Dundas one year. They refused to come get it so I caught it & put it under an empty garbage pail until animal rescue came. i felt like an asshole but I couldn't just leave it there.

I like stories with happy endings.

Random picks of baby squirrels before I brought them in & one of the raccoon that moved into the dog house. All from a couple years back

Ah purple, the universal colour of lunatics everywhere!

2009-05-04T18:50:00.008-04:00

From now on I'm going to refer to my ex-crazy room as my 're-crazy' room cause it still looks pretty fucking crazy! The purple I chose is so deep & rich, I love it. I was afraid that once it was on the walls it wouldn't be a true purple but it is & it looks great. I'm hoping the three coats we've already done will be enough, it looks good now but it's still wet so it's hard to tell. If we need to do another coat we'll have to buy another gallon.

The wall paper I was getting is a bit too pinky-fuchsia so I'm going to go back & look through the books again before I make my final decision. My curtains are coming on Friday but I still need to pick out a rod. I was thinking of getting the same style as I used in our bedroom. It's black with cut-crystal finials but now I'm gonna get one with a brushed nickel finish instead & I'm getting a switch plate, register vent & outlet covers to match.

We didn't bother finishing the window trim yet but I'm going to try & get it done next week. I need to have the baseboards painted before we put the floor in. Plus we'll need to pick up some quarter-round to finish the edges after the cork flooring goes down. That should be next weekends project, hopefully we won't fall as far behind as we did before. I'm moving the painted bookcase & dresser (project #1) back in for the week cause I'm getting tired of looking at them. The bookcase is at the edge of my kitchen & the dresser is in the upstairs hall.

Today I dug a trench under the deck to plant a five foot length of 6x6 along the side of the basement steps to try & divert some of the rainwater that seeps in under the door. I piled the dirt I dug out against the back foundation wall sloping it away from the house & hubby tamped it down with a cement block. It's supposed to rain on Wednesday so we'll get a chance to see if what we've done makes any difference & we'll figure out how to proceed from there.

We're getting so close to finishing the re-crazy room I'm starting to obsess about what to do next. This year I want to paint our bedroom, replace the bedroom carpet with bamboo flooring, replace the hall carpet with some type of wood flooring, re-fresh the paint on all the baseboards/trim/doors, paint the livingroom/diningroom, paint the stairway/upstairs hall & paint the front porch. I'd like to get the all the painting done before the humid weather comes but I hate carpet so I want to get that up quick!
All I know for sure is I should probably do the floors AFTER we finish painting...I'm a pretty sloppy painter!

White Out!

2009-05-02T23:54:00.002-04:00

First coat of primer is up & in four hours we're going back up to slap another coat on.
Tomorrow we paint...Finally. We're thinking that maybe we should frame the window up first though. Hopefully it won't be too hard.

Hubby showed me the trailer for the new Rob Zombie Halloween film on YouTube. This one is called H2. I love Rob Zombie, Hubby & I have seen him play live a couple times. House of 1000 Corpses & Devil's Rejects both rocked & I loved his version of Halloween. I can pretty much say that Halloween is one of my fav horror movies, along with the Changeling (not that Jolie movie, you morons...), the Shining, Devils Rejects & Black Christmas. I think it's awesome that Rob wants to share his fame with his wife. It's sweet that he wants to make her a star but he's put her in every film he's ever made, it's getting kinda boring.

I wandered down to crappy tire to buy a kitchen scale but of course it was out of stock. Even though I checked availability online before I left the house in the rain. This is not the first time it's happened, I know from past experience to always check before I leave but know that the site is often wrong.

Ho-Hum

2009-05-01T19:45:00.011-04:00

I forced myself to do our taxes yesterday. I hate doing taxes, I'm glad it's over for another year. I always worry that I screwed up somehow. Hubby is getting loads back...I'm trying to talk him into putting his refund towards a trip to New Orleans this fall! Crossing my fingers.

I found a 50% off discount code for Cirque du Soleil's new show on twitter yesterday. It's called Ovo & I think it's the insect one! I love Cirque du Soleil & I love bugs so it should be awesome! Hubby & I are taking my mom. She's never been to Cirque before. I think she's gonna love it. It's still a long time away though. It won't hit Toronto until September. I can't wait!

I can't for the life of me understand how people say exercising makes them feel good. All exercising makes me feel is greasy, tired & sore, I think they're all a bunch of dirty liars. I climbed on the scale today. After one week of daily ellipticalling & five days of dieting I haven't lost an ounce...makes me wanna eat a dozen donuts or a whole cheesecake. Fuck-fuck-fuck. Tomorrow I'm venturing out to pick up a fancy kitchen scale. I need to keep track of all the crap I shove in my mouth more accurately.

Hubby met his mom, cunting sister & bro#2 for lunch before Bro#2 left for BC today. They ate at Marvelous Edibles, I've never been but it sounds good. Marvelous Edibles just happens to be in the same neighbourhood as Cajun Corner. Cajun Corner is the place to buy everything New Orleans. They sell masks, beads, boas & all kinds of NOLA-ish food stuffs...PLUS they sell gumbo & po'boys! They used to be in Leslieville but they moved out of the area last year. I miss them terribly. They offered us all kinds of great advice before our first trip to New Orleans. Hubby rocks, after his clan finished lunch he wandered over to Cajun Corner & picked me up a take out order. I was sooo excited when I saw my treat...I'm such a fat girl...he got me cajun slaw, sweet potato chips & a catfish/shrimp combo po'boy! Yummm, fuck today's diet, I crammed that fucker into my face as fast as I could. It was sooo goood!
...then I climbed on the elliptical.

Weener is in heat. Mo-ee has been chasing her around the house for the last three days. I hope it stops tonight. Mo is fixed but I guess no one thought to tell him. Ween slithers around him on her back making creepy noises all night. Drives me crazy...if only I had a sack & a river close by...
Last night they were so loud I couldn't sleep, I had to separate them. I locked Mo in the bedroom with me & left Ween in the hall to yowl. It only worked for a few hours then Mo was scratching at the door to get out. Every year I say that I'm getting Weenie fixed but I never do. She's a house cat & the only time she ever goes outside is when she's on her leash & harness. Weenie is a cat-whore. She even flirts with Doo-ey, I tell Mo that he's too good for her, that she's just trash but he doesn't listen.

The back-ordered curtains for the ex-crazy room are supposed to be coming next week & we are painting tomorrow...for really-real this time...we should be able to put the floor in next weekend. As soon as it's done I'll post a pic, maybe even a before & after shot to remind everyone just how crazy the crazy room was.
It's still gonna be crazy though, just a different kind of crazy.

***pics are Ween & Mo havin' some kitty-foreplay & Ween letting her cousin Gizzy have a try when he was a house guest last year. *both Giz & Mo are fixed!

Fat Watch

2009-04-29T01:36:00.000-04:00

OK, so I started my diet this Monday instead of last week...I had to finish all the treats first...I'm such an idiot.

When I first got my elliptical I was so outta shape I could barely do five minutes so I'd do five, two or three times a day. For the last couple of days I've been doing 10 minutes at a time two or three times a day & today I did 15 mins twice so I'm working my way up to a normal person workout. My thighs ache & I sweat so at least I know I'm getting more exercise than I used too (which was none except for walking places) I'm hoping to do 20 minutes tomorrow or if my crappy legs hurt too much I'll try on Thursday. I wanna work myself up to an hour but right now that seems impossible! I think I'll be happy with doing 30-40 mins twice a day.

I've been trying to avoid snacking & I've been eating brekkie (something I never do) not a real brekkie though just a yogurt. For lunch I've been eating soup or salad & I have a real dinner but only about half the amount I would normally eat. I broke & had a hot chocolate last night though so I'm going to buy some low-cal powdered mix so I won't feel as guilty when I have one. I found a calculator online & I'm not sure how accurate it is since it didn't ask for my age or sex but it said my BMI is 33 & I'm obese...nice. I punched hubby's height & weight in too & it says he's overweight but I don't think he is, he just has a little belly, he wears 34 jeans when he used to wear 32 a few years ago.

Wish me luck...I'm sure I'll need it.

Monday, Monday

2009-04-28T02:32:00.001-04:00

Yeah I know today is Tuesday but I always write these things at 2 or 3am.

Hubby & I spent the day cleaning up the backyard. We tore the chicken wire off of the bunny hutch frame that we had already broken up last week. We bundled the wire to put out for garbage pick up but instead of putting the wood out for garbage hubby cut it up into chiminea-sized pieces. So now we have two old-style recycling boxes full of wood all ready for chilly spring nights.

We couldn't resist, we fired up the chiminea for a trail run & we burned a bunch of leaves that we swept out of the corners of the patio. Hubby dragged two of our wildly coloured Muskoka chairs out of the garage & we just sat & chatted. It was nice to just sit & chat & not have to worry about having to rush to get a job done.

off leash dogs...

2009-04-27T20:49:00.007-04:00

Sunday was a waste. Both hubby & I had awful hangovers. They only time we left the house was when Hubby went to church & when I went to visit my great uncle with my mom & Doo-ey. I'm pretty sure the only reason my mom insisted I come is because she's ashamed of how her dog behaves in public. I joke with her about how she spoiled me & now she's doing the same with Doo-ey. My hangover was making me feel so crappy I was afraid I would get to my uncles & vomit, I wanted to go on Monday instead but my mom insisted.

Of course she always hands me the leash. Sunday afternoon is a bad time to walk your dog if he doesn't have doggie-social skills yet. We ran into about six dogs on our walk over without incident. We were almost home free, we had one block to go & we spotted another dog on the same side of the street as us. I rushed to get around the corner to avoid the other dog but the stupid cunt walking him let go of his leash so he could come sniff at Doo.

What a fucking stupid thing to do. Doo & the other dog sniffed each other & slowly worked their way around to sniff butts & as soon as they discovered they were both boys the growling started. I don't know which dog charged up first but I do know that I would have been able to pull Doo away but the other dog was free. He bit Doo, at least the cunt was concerned about Doo being hurt, he wasn't but the cunt had the balls to tell me that the dogs were upset because Doo's leash was too short. Ummm, yeah lady. The reason I pull his leash in when we see other dogs is because I know how excited he gets around them.

He's still a big baby, he's only about 19 months old & he hardly gets to see other dogs so when he spots one he barks & cries & bounces around cause he wants to play. This is something I don't want to be bothered with so when I'm the one walking him (once a week or so) I either avoid other dogs or I wind his leash up tight. The astonishing thing is that the stupid cunt didn't even try to grab her dogs leash so we could pull them apart. She just let them fight while I was struggling to pull Doo away so we could leave.

Why on earth would someone let go of their dogs leash so he could run up to another dog when it was so obvious we were trying to avoid them? I don't care how well behaved you think your dog is, when I'm walking 'my' dog along a busy street the very last thing I want is for you to let your 'good' dog run up to mine. I think I understand how little dogs get eaten by larger dogs. Asshole dog owners letting their dogs run free where they shouldn't be running free. Me, following the rules, keeping my dog safe by keeping him on his leash is not gonna save him from your asshole dog if it's off leash.

I wish someone would start handing out tickets to dog owners who insist their dogs be allowed to run free while they are on public property. When your dog needs a good hard run bring it to the doggie park or buy a house in the boonies with a massive yard, keep it off Queen st. Asshole.

Oh My...

2009-04-26T03:17:00.005-04:00

My husband is in our basement trying to make himself vomit.

We just got home from some hillbilly bar in Scarborough. You know the kind, every neighbourhood has a few. They masquerade as Chinese restaurants but the only stuff they ever serve is cheap domestic beer, bottom shelf liquor & fries n'gravy.

It's our own fault though...we crashed a party at a Legion, everything was fine there but we ended up following my young cousin & her pal to someones birthday party. I can't say my cousin didn't warn us but we really didn't think it could be that bad. It was & worse. What is the only thing more awful than a Toronto hillbilly bar...a Scarborough hillbilly bar. I asked her on the way (jokingly) are we gonna get shot? & she answered "just duck"...nice.

For the record I've been to some nasty bars but this one takes the cake. I can honestly tell you we were in the middle of dirt-land. First of all it was karaoke night. The woman in charge of the karaoke was singing country songs & was wearing white sweatpants. Our second dirt-land clue was some random guy came up to make friends with hubby & I. He started telling us about how he attended WoodStock 2. Hubby & I assumed he was talking about Woodstock 94 so we started telling him about the great time we had at Woodstock 99 in Rome, NY. He said a few crazy (made-up & confused) things about other shows we were at. Then he started arguing with hubby. Saying that Pantera was having a reunion tour & would be headlining Ozzfest in Flin Flon, Manitoba. I didn't feel up to getting stabbed in the face by a lunatic tonight. So in the heat of the argument I kicked hubby a few times HARD under the table while he was loudly & angrily explaining to the lunatic that he couldn't see Pantera re-uniting since the lead guitarist (the drummers bro) was shot dead at a Damageplan show a few years back. The lunatic seemed shocked at this news even thought it was something even a casual fan would be aware of but he still didn't back down.

Please, don't get me wrong. Pantera is my favorite band in all the world but somehow, considering the circumstances, I can't see the surviving members of Pantera re-uniting. I would love more than anyone to see them play together again but there isn't another soul on this earth that can play as hard & fast & awesomely as Dime could.

We had trouble getting a cab to take us back to civilization...I mean Leslieville. I thought we were gonna die out there. It was awful, we shoulda stayed at the Legion. The Legion beer is super cheap, of course they didn't have TankHouse but they had Heiney & that worked fine for me...even though we spent most of the night behind a truck in the parking lot drinking beers out of the party-boys cooler...

Beautiful Day...at least outside

2009-04-24T14:28:00.008-04:00

Hubby is a very lazy man. He still hasn't bothered to prime. But then again, I haven't bothered to do it either. Hmmm...

I'm sitting in the backyard with my lappy. It's gorgeous out but it's pretty windy...I'm almost worried about the table & umbrella blowing away. It's funny how I never notice how dusty lappy is until I take him outside. He's filthy, he needs a good spit & polish. I wonder how long he will last if I never figure out how to clean the dust, cat fur & dead skin out of his insides?

My mom is still at work so I went in to let Doo-ey out for a pee. I was putting my recycling out so he got to explore my backyard. Usually we have the baby gate up so he has to stay in his yard. He loves my side though. I think it's because his yard has been puppy-proofed & my side still has a few sticks under my little pine & other fun stuff to chew up. Right now he's trying to catch shit flies. When he catches them he gobbles them up. Yum!

Elliptical-ling is hard work, yesterday when I crawled into bed to read before sleep I discovered that my feet were all pins & needles. I thought maybe I was having a heart attack being the fat out-of-shape piggy that I am. So I did what any other moron would do when concerned about their health. I went downstairs, turned lappy back on & googled it. It turns out it's pretty common & can be avoided by changing the position of my feet on the foot-holder-things every so often. Who knew, anyways I was relived to know hubby wasn't gonna find me dead in the morning. Well, not from a heart attack at least.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll get back on track with our house projects, that is unless we're lured outside by another sunny spring day like this one. I'd really like to get the house back in order. All the stuff & furniture that should be in the new crazy room is scattered throughout the house. I know painting is gonna be the least of our worries but I'd like to get it done before we tackle the putting the floor down. As soon as the floor is in I can get the house tidy again. Hopefully.

Ups & Downs

2009-04-22T00:08:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm not surprised. Hubby didn't bother to prime the crazy room this morning but he swears he'll get it done tomorrow. I hauled an old crappy bookcase out of the overly crowed middle room this afternoon. I've already slapped two coats of black paint down already so at least something for the crazy room got done today.

The diet that I was starting Monday has not happened. I found three tubs of Ben & Jerry's in the downstairs freezer & I discovered that two of my cocktail shakers have been filled with mini eggs...the worst part is is that I ate a (large) handful & the shaker magically refilled itself. I have no idea how many bags of discounted easter treats hubby bought but it only makes to sense to eat them all before I begin my diet.

My elliptical arrived today. It is a really unnatural motion & is a lot harder than I expected it to be. I did five minutes just fooling around & the back of my neck was damp. I'm so out of shape. I'm hoping to lose 20 lbs by June, it might be a bit un-realistic but I need a goal even if it is crazy. When my legs start to cramp up my body wants to go faster, I have to learn how to pace myself. I'm going to try & do 20-30 mins every day or so until I work my self up to an hour...I am really out of shape so it may take a few weeks but hopefully it will be something I'm able to stick to.

Today's happenings

2009-04-21T00:11:00.005-04:00

Today, in between our final sandings we wandered through the rain to Home Depot. We looked at all the different flooring options & we picked one out. We decided on a floating floor in dark cork. It's so pretty & installation sounds really easy. Best of all it's only $50 a case. We have about 75 square feet (super small room!) to do, so we should be able to get away with only buying four cases. If we watch our cuts & don't screw up we might even be able to do it in three. Crossing fingers.

By the time I crawl out of bed tomorrow hubby will have slapped a coat of primer up & we should have a purple room by Saturday at the latest. Of course we still haven't done the window but hubby is pretty confident we won't run into any huge issues. We still haven't picked up the wallpaper yet but I think I'm going to concentrate on the window & floor before I worry about fancy wallpaper.

For Saturdays BBQ only bro#2 showed but hubby made what he calls 'hubby'-cheese-steak. He rubbed cracked pepper into a bunch of T-bones, grilled them & then he piled fried-in-butter onions on them & topped them with grated cheese (not sure of the type but it was white w/sundried tomatoes) I've been dreaming of it since. Last night we had Dangerous Dan's for supper, I love those big dirty burgers! Yum! They make some of the most anti-diet combos I've ever seen. Check out their website, DangerousDansDiner between the two of us, hubby & I have tried just about everything on their menu...cept for that Elvis sammie...bleech. I made jambalaya for dinner tonight. Since we're so far away from New Orleans & now even Cajun Corner has left the neighbourhood we're forced to get our NOLA food fix from a box. Zataran's isn't that bad but I can tell you if we lived in Louisiana I'd never touch it again.

Yesterday hubby broke down the bunny hutch. He used a crowbar on the Eaton's grocery box that my dad had set up as a bunny hiding spot. It was kinda rotten since it's been a bunny box for close to twenty years but I still could have used it as a planter. Men are so destructive. It was really fancy by olden-day standards. It was designed to be collapsible, the bottom flipped up into the box & the sides we're hinged so it could be stored flat-ish in the delivery truck. Sure wish hubby hadn't of destroyed it. We've decided that if we ever get another bunny we'll build his hutch under the stairs of the back deck. The old hutch was huge, it took up way too much of our tiny backyard.

***pics are my destroyed Eaton's box & shrimp peelings...they kinda look like little dead aliens...

Oopsie...

2009-04-20T13:28:00.003-04:00

We were working on the crazy room today. We thought we'd save a bit of time if we just pulled up the carpet so we wouldn't have to worry about messing it up while sanding, priming & painting. We vacuumed it good & started rolling it up but the underside was so dirty we ended up cutting it into sections & bundling it up for garbage pick up.

Now we have two choices...neither involve more carpet. We're either gonna go the cheapy route & put down a floating floor or we're going to use the tiny room as practice for when we do our bedroom & put hardwood down. Of course I'd rather do hardwood but it'll cost so much more & take so much longer I think I'm just gonna have to suck it up & do the crappy one. It's such a small room I don't think it will really matter & it's so cheap we could always re-do it when we put the bedroom floor in.

I hate carpet. The entire upstairs save for the bathroom is wall to wall, it's not good with pets...or lazy people.

More random ramblings...sleep would be lovely.

2009-04-19T02:45:00.004-04:00

I got an email newsletter today (Sweetspot) about some fancy new shoes. You pick a sole & then you pick an 'upper' the idea is you can buy several different styles of uppers & just put them on the soles when you need a change. The example given on sweetspot was if you are traveling & don't have room to pack a different pair of shoes for every outfit bring one sole & a few different uppers. It sounds like a great idea in theory but all the soles that are available are flat or are very close to being flat. Flat shoes hardly take up any room in suitcases, it's the boots, heels & tall wedgie sandals that are the space-eaters. Anyways the company is called Phootlery, I'm surprised that no one has thought of this sooner. It's too bad the soles only come in gold & silver & all the uppers are hideous. They look Italian & not in a good way, more of the tacky Tony Soprano-wife type Italian . Maybe a knock-off will come along shortly with some pretty styles.

I just read an awful review of this years Brewers Plate... www.blogto.com ...for anyone who's interested. Last year I found out about it after it had already happened. I was sorry I missed it & planned to go if they did it again this year. I bugged hubby to go but between the $97 tickets & his shitty work schedule we decided not to. Now I'm glad we didn't waste our money. It certainly sounded wonderful last year but I'd hesitate before buying a ticket for next year after this years performance.

The Freecycle gal came to pick up the stuff today. Right on schedule & she brought us a thank you card! So sweet & so unexpected. She mentioned that she'll keep us up to date on her ride.

I was just reminded about how much I hate the asshole who delivers our Toronto Star. I asked for it to be left between our front doors & it hasn't been left between the doors once in the four months we've been subscribers. I emailed complaints a few times but of course they were ignored. I'm gonna try one more time & then I'm going to cancel my subscription. I'm thinking about trying the Sun instead, I'm afraid it will turn my brain to jelly though. The Sun is as shitty as CP24...news for people who don't care enough to watch the news but at least it will be dry. Our Star usually lands on our lawn or in the garden, I know the Sun guy doesn't just toss the paper towards the house. The reason I pay for delivery is so I don't have to get dressed & walk to the corner to get my paper, I kinda have to do that now only I don't have to walk as far.

Ramblings of a very tired girl.

2009-04-18T03:39:00.008-04:00

A house on my street sold yesterday. The sign only went on the lawn a few days ago & they had an open house the next night. I looked out the window & couldn't believe the number of cars parked on both side of the street. I guess it worked out well for them, a van with ladders on the roof was parked out front the next morning & the sold sign went up yesterday. They were asking for $439, I'm not clever enough to find out what it ended up going for but I'm shocked it sold so fast. Not because it was a bad house, it's really pretty, my childhood pals father renovated it years ago. I'm shocked because I thought selling a house usually took a lot longer than a few days. Good for them though. I hope they're happy with the sale.

Last night I went to bed at 3am. Something woke me just before four. It sounded like someone walking on the roof. Our roof is peaked. I don't think it was raccoons cause it was really loud, the vibrations actually made the crystals on my chandelier jiggle. Of course I was the only one who heard it. Well me & Weenie, she heard it too. She stood up on her hind legs on the bed & looked up like one of those meercat things. Freaked me out. Then I imagined I could hear someone in my mom's house walking up & down the hall. I got dressed & stood on the back deck to see if they had any lights on...they didn't. When I asked my mom about it today she said I must have imagined it. I guess I did...cra-zy!

Hubby's brothers are supposed to come over later today (it's 3am as I'm writing) for a BBQ, his sister's not invited...she's a cunt. Bro#2 is moving to BC in a few weeks so we wanted to have him over before he left. We managed to get ahold of bro#2 but bro#1 is missing in action. His cell & his landline have both been disconnected, it's a common occurrence with them but hubby is worried about whether or not he's gonna show. I'm more worried about whether he's gonna show & bring his pregnant girlfriend. That would be great, I'd love to meet her but I have no interest in meeting her one year old. Hubby says bro#1 knows not to bring babies to the house...I sure hope so. I'm so not a fan of babies, or any children for that matter. They scream & shit & break things. I can do without the hassle of having children visit, having drunk people to worry about is stressful enough, you never know where they're gonna vomit or what they're going to break or throw.

We still haven't finished sanding so getting the ex-crazy room painted this weekend isn't going to happen. I'm more than a little disappointed. Hopefully we can at least get the room primed so we can slap some paint up next weekend, get the window framed in & get the chandelier wired up. Now that the weather is getting nicer we're going to have to start on all our backyard jobs too. We have to dismantle the rabbit hutch, stain both decks, set up all our patio furniture & start working on our wet basement issue from the outside.
Sigh, it never ends.

***pic 1 - the massive spider who was living in our patio umbrella...he doesn't look quite as big in the photo though.
pic 2 - gramma hair. After sanding for an hour or so my hair was completely white!

I'm disgusted with myself

2009-04-17T20:08:00.005-04:00

I accidentally stepped on the scale today & I discovered that I've gained 20lbs since December. Not that it matters but 15 of those pounds is weight I lost last fall that I've gained back PLUS five new blubbery pounds. I disgust me.

I just bought an elliptical & I'll be be starting a k-style diet soon. probably on Monday, Mondays are always the best time for me to start something new. Today was such a nice sunny day, people were walking around Leslieville with their pale white flesh showing but not me. Nope, I'm ashamed of myself.

I have a whole whack of pretty little sundresses that I'll look like a gay hippo in if I wear them now. Pretty soon I'll have to buy a bathing suit with a built in skirt...you know the kind. I always told myself that it'd be wrist-slashing time when I couldn't fit in 'normal' people clothes & now that time has almost come. I already don't fit in the cheap-clothes-for-teens-shops but now I'm at the upper end of the regular scale. I refuse to shop at the specialty (read fat-girl) stores but if I get any bigger I'll be wearing sweat pants. Do they still even sell sweat pants? Zellers probably has em', anyways something has to be done. NOW!
Monday? Yeah Monday!
Wish me & my fat ass luck!

***Sorry...I couldn't resist...

IE8 & Windows Aero Woes...

2009-04-16T22:53:00.011-04:00

I'm so not a geek, I completely wasted the day fiddling with IE8 & trying to get my Windows Vista Aero theme back.

I upgraded my browser to IE8 this afternoon. Then I spent over two hours trying to get it to look & act like IE7. I'm still not completely pleased with IE8's performance. Opening new tabs takes forever. I get a connecting message for a few seconds, more seconds than I'm willing to wait but maybe the next time I want to waste a day I'll search for a fix that works. So far I changed my SpyBot settings & I did some weird thing in command prompt mode but new tabs still seem to lag.

Since I was fiddling around with the settings on my lappy I thought today would be a good day to fix all the little things that piss me off. I'm excited to announce that I figured out (thanks google!) how to remove the branding ads on my open browser windows. My IE7 windows all said 'provided by Dell' at the top & when I upgraded to 8 they all said 'provided by Yahoo' now they are nice & clean. Yay me!

Today was a real day of learning for me. I found out that gmail (& other) windows opening up over my other open, active windows has a name. It's called 'stealing focus' & it drives me crazy, I'll be happily typing away only to have another of my open windows force it's way on top. I figured out how to stop it, I'm very happy that my stealing focus nightmare is now over. Once again, thanks google, I couldn't have done it without you.

My biggest screw up & time-waster of the day was trying to restart my Aero theme. It worked beautifully but I was playing around & I turned it off thinking I'd be able to switch back easily enough but my Aero option refused to come back. I must have looked at a million google results before I found the winner. A frightening thing almost happened, I was this () close to messing around with my registry & if you know me & know how little I know about computers you'd also know that it would have ended badly. Very badly.
In the end the only reason I couldn't get Aero back was because I had turned a few of my services off (don't ask, I don't know why) & as soon as I set the 'Desktop Windows Manager' service to 'automatic' & started it up again Aero magically appeared back on my options menu. Wheeee.

I feel both very clever & incredibly stupid at the same time.

Fuck FreeCycle - Small Update

2009-04-15T23:59:00.007-04:00

Now that I've given up on freecycle I thought I'd be stuck with a pile of crap that we'd have to lug to Value Village but I was lucky enough to spot a 'wanted' ad on freecycle.

I had responded to a couple of ads before. One was by a woman looking for lego for a little girls fifth birthday & the other was by a woman who was looking for donations of books for a school library that had flooded. My offer of lego was accepted. Along with some other things I managed to scrounge up that were suitable for a girl of five but my offer of a box of assorted children's books to the other woman was ignored for some reason. hmmm, they were all brand new too.

The want ad that caught my eye was posted by a woman who is riding her bike from Toronto to Niagara Falls (Ride to Conquer Cancer) & was in search of donated items for a yard sale she is having to help reach her fund-raising goal.

I pulled my two most recent freecycle offers & sent her an email asking if she wanted my stuff. She's taking it all, the books, the Cd's plus a pile of other odds & ends! Hubby & I are going through our treasures again to see if we can find a few other items to donate. She will be coming to pick everything up this weekend. I'm excited to be helping out, even in such a small way, for such a great cause. Too many of us have had to watch friends & family suffer with this horrible disease.

I hope her yard sale is a great success & hauls in a ton of cash & I wish her all the best on her ride!

CeilingMax or CeilingLink?

2009-04-14T23:30:00.003-04:00

Hubby & I have been discussing what to do with the basement. We've already decided on ceiling tiles that look like the old fashioned tin tiles but now we've picked a specific product. Since the ceiling is so low we can't waste space with a suspended ceiling. We were at Home Depot & we discovered the 'CeilingMax' surface mount system. With Ceilingmax we should be able to mount the grid for the tiles directly to the joists. The other products we were looking at involved gluing the tiles to an existing ceiling so this should save us a lot of time & hopefully money. I'm afraid to have a drywall ceiling downstairs in case we have to do any electrical work in the future & drywalling a ceiling is a massive, dusty job, one I'd prefer to avoid.

The magic of Google lead me to discover a product called CeilingLink that is quite similar to Ceilingmax but is supposed to be cheaper & easier to install but I've only found a place to order it from the US so Ceilingmax may turn out to be cheaper since I won't have to pay shipping & duties to have it sent up from the states.

We need to figure out lighting too. I hate pot lights, I can't understand why people seem to love them. We have them in our living room & dining room & I hate them but I think pot lights will be ideal downstairs. We have a messy looking florescent fixture & some basic ceiling fixtures now but they look like shit & if we're going to go to all the trouble of installing a ceiling we might as well do it right & make it look pretty. We need to box in the ductwork too but that's a thought for another time.

I'm hoping having a ceiling will reduce the amount of dust that gets blown upstairs during heating season as well as making the basement part of our living space & not just a spot to store our extra crap. For now, at least until we get our water problem under control we'll just be painting the concrete wall rather than putting drywall up. I don't want to think about flooring for now. We have all the ceramic tile we need but it's a job I'm not ready to think about yet. Once the ceiling is done, the back wall is painted & the wood is stained then I'll start thinking about the flooring!

Fuck FreeCycle

2009-04-13T01:24:00.003-04:00

Up until this week I only had good experiences with freecycle. Well other than last time. I had an old dude who requested 11 of the 17 things I had on offer...when I told him some items he wanted were already spoken for he asked for three more things.

I have two women picking up books today & tomorrow & after that I'm done. Fuck freecycle & fuck all the greedy dirtbags who prey on the generosity of others.

I listed 30 books grouped into four lots. The books I offered were completely random, everything from x-mas crafts to Witchcraft. New age to mysteries. I was shocked at the number of people who requested 2 or more lots. Come on, I doubt anyone is interested in every book I have. I try to be fair. I offered two gals who each asked for three lots one each. Both girls responded (separately) saying they'd no longer be able to pick up the books. One of the cunts was rude enough to reply with "I was very intereated in the first lot...I was hopeful in receiving the first one and would have picked up the others as well" So basically she was saying that she only wanted the Witchy & new age books (you know the ones she could sell for big bucks) but since she was here she would have taken 13 other books as well. I've sold Witchy books myself & I know all the weirdos shop online. All of the Occult books I sold on ebay made me at least half of my original purchase price back & I actually made money on two or three books that were out of print.

The whole point of me joining freecycle was to get rid of stuff but I can easily de-clutter in other ways. I thought I was doing a good thing for the community offering items for free rather than donating crap to Value Village for them to sell. I can't believe the greed of some people...& the stupidity! One dude wanted my dresser mirror, I put the measurements in my post (3'x4') he was busy but thought he'd send his wife to pick it up. He asked "Would it fit in a large bag or stroller?" what a moron. It's big & heavy if she wanted to try it I didn't care. I guess he re-thought it & responded today with "Sorry, count us out. Just found out sister-in-law is pregnant, so we will be busy tonight" WHAT?? that doesn't even make sense! Oh yeah, saving the best for last. I got this email late last night. "Hi are there any of these books left?" No mention of which of the 30 books she was interested in. What a bunch of idiots!

I'm fully aware I could have sold these items myself. Last year we had two yard sales & made a few hundred bucks & back in my e-bay days I sold hundreds of Cd's when hubby & I combined our collections & hundreds more were sold, given to pals & donated when we purged our collection housed in two big Ikea Billy bookcases. I've sold hundreds of books, hardcover, softcover, pocketbooks even ARCs. People buy books, people buy Cd's, people buy crap but I get headaches dealing with people. I thought I'd avoid getting my 'selling headache' & give stuff away instead but it turns out freecycler headaches are the worst kind & I don't make any money to buy Advil after the fact.

My Freecycling days are over. I've already made a pile of stuff for my next freecycle listing & I have 30-40 Cd's in a box in the basement. Hubby & I were brainstorming on how to give them to people who wanted them & not some shit-bag who would turn around & sell them. We decided that I'd type out a list of titles & ask people to email me with a couple of choices & maybe one or two back-up choices. That way each person would only get a few Cd's & no one was gonna make a fortune off our generosity. I don't care anymore, it's not happening now.
So if you drop by Value Village & find 9 Cirque Du Soliel soundtracks, a pile of Dan Gibson's Solitudes & a bunch of other discs in pristine condition, those are mine & if it wasn't for the dirtbags of Toronto you could have had them for free.

Egg Day!

2009-04-12T23:40:00.002-04:00

No real time to write today so this is just a tiny note...

The easter bunny came today! Ok, I'm 32, I know they easter bunny isn't really real. Hubby was the one who hid my eggs. He does every year. Last year was the first year in my life that my mommy didn't hide eggs for me. For the past 9 years I've had two egg hunts every easter! I'm such a spoiled brat. My mom tied my shoes for me until I was 13.

We were going to colour our eggs last night but we didn't have any vinegar so we did them this morning instead. It doesn't matter since no one actually eats them. We just use them for the egg bashing contest we have every year after dinner. My aunt & uncle did the turkey this year, everything turned out perfect, as usual.

*** pics are our coloured eggs drying, the easter lily my mom bought me & my basket of found treats!

Falling into place...

2009-04-11T19:26:00.008-04:00

Everything seems to be falling into place today.
We went to Home Depot to buy brush refills, paint tray liners & rollers for later this week when we start to prime the ex-crazy room & I accidentally found a hot pink chandelier...for $25! The regular price was $100 but they had a bunch on clearance. I was considering a chandelier anyway because I love the one in our bedroom so I had already measured. I knew that I couldn't get away with anything with much more than a 15 inch drop because the ceiling is so low. The $25 chandelier is 24" but I examined the display model & I knew I'd be able to play around with it a bit. I got it home & I took out two of the middle sections & I doctored the bottom crystals so they don't hang as low. After my adjustments it hangs about 14" & it still has enough crystal do-hickeys to make it good & tacky! Yay!

I also lucked out with the dresser (project no. 1) knobs, I showed hubby the ones I had picked out. They were over $16 each & I needed five for the dresser plus two more for the wardrobe doors. I was debating whether or not to grab them but we decided to take one more look around & we found better ones for $8-something...almost half the price of my original pick! What makes these ones better is that they have a brushed-silver base & the others had shiny gold...never been fan of shiny gold accents on furniture. The knobs we ended up have twins that come in a slightly larger size but they were sold out. I'll be using the larger knobs for the wardrobe doors...if they ever get them back in stock.

Hubby didn't like the idea of the pink chandelier but I when I showed him the wallpaper I'm using for my 'accent' wall he nearly shit! I guess will be a little over-the-top, but it sure as hell won't be boring! I was gonna lazy out & not bother painting the wallpaper wall but the wallpaper is pretty busy so I may tire of it after a year or three & need to pull it down.

I'm re-using a bookcase we already have from the middle bedroom. I'm painting it black & taking the back off it so it will be open & we picked up some corner brackets to brace it from behind so it doesn't collapse without the backing in place to hold it square. I know from experience not to trust particle board. I still need to buy a desk, I have my heart set on a glass top but I think I'm going to cheap out & buy wood...for now anyways.

I know not to hang the chandelier until after we've finished painting but I'm not sure when we should frame the window in, I'm thinking it should be done between priming & painting. I'm putting it off because it's something I'm not really comfortable doing myself. I'm pretty sure if I do it'll look sloppy. I need some time to figure out a plan of attack! I ripped down the old mini-blind today so I could fill the holes but now I'm regretting it since I don't have curtains or even a rod yet...I could always staple a flag up like some of the neighbourhood hillbillies do!
Our yuppie neighbours would really love that!

*** pics to come!

Disappearing Tweets?

2009-04-09T00:43:00.003-04:00

Call the Twitter Police, someone's been stealing my tweets!

Sometimes my fresh new tweets don't show up at all & other times they show up but when I go back later to post a new tweet I find some of my older tweets are missing. Of course it's my most funny & clever tweets that go missing, it's never the boring ones. What's up with that?

I'm also having trouble staying logged in to the Twitter site. I always remain logged in to the sites I use regularly & I don't have to log back in unless I've dumped my cookies but Twitter needs me to log back in at completely random intervals.

I've only been a member for a few weeks, I know Twitter has been around for years so you'd think they would have been able to work their bugs out by now. I'll give them another week or two to see if they get their act together.
It sucks that they suck. I kinda like Twitter.

*** Holy crap! I just googled 'disappearing tweets' & ended up with 73,700 hits. I guess I'm not the only one. The people at Twitter must know there is a problem by now. That tells me that they either don't care or they aren't clever enough to fix it.

All Growed Up?

2009-04-08T00:24:00.006-04:00

I've been thinking about it doing it for a few weeks now.
I finally bit the bullet & got the pliers out.
Today was the day I got rid of two of my piercings.

I took the jewelery out of my eyebrow & my labret. I still have a nipple & my tongue pierced. If I decide I can't live without them I can always re-pierce them or I could always move on to more exciting parts.

My mom seems to think it's part of her birthday present, she doesn't understand that my tattoos & piercings have absolutely nothing to do with her. For some reason she thinks that I get things pierced & new tattoos for no reason other than to upset her.

I don't even know why I took them out. I wasn't bored or tired of them, I just decided I didn't need them. I'm in the process of ridding my house of clutter so pulling a few chunks of metal out of my body kinda fits into my new clutter-less (more like less-clutter) self.

By the way, I still love my tattoos. I plan on getting many more & if I ever decide I'm bored with my tats I'll just have to suck it up...these babies aren't as easy to remove!

***Yesterday was my mommy's birthday! Happy Birthday Mommy!

Space Bags...

2009-04-07T15:43:00.016-04:00

Note to self. Duct tape does not heal torn space bags.

I hit our local Crappy Tire to hunt down some space bags for temporary(?) stuffie storage. I bought two packages of 'cubes', each pack was $22 & contained one large & one extra large sized cube. When I got home I immediately started filling the two smaller bags. I filled them up, sealed them & stuck the vacuum over the fancy valve. I was impressed with how much air was sucked out of the bags. They shrunk to about half their original size.
But, I could hear hissing---the sound of escaping air. I went to work filling the extra large bags & while I was pulling the fancy zipper pull tab across to seal the bag the hard plastic of the button tore into the top of the bag. I put that bag aside & filled the second one. Guess what? The other bag tore in the same place as the first. I woke hubby & showed him what had happened & we made the long trek back to Canadian Tire.

The girl working customer service gave us no trouble when we explained what happened & asked to exchange the bags. She didn't seem to care when we told her we still had the two smaller bags at home so with the exchange we ended up with two extra large sized bags. When we got back home I opened the one package filled & sealed both bags with no trouble but when I opened the second package I discovered that we had bought a return. The extra large bag was folded differently & was wrinkly. Sure enough when I checked the seal I found a two inch tear, exactly where my other two bags were torn. By then we were too lazy to make the trek back to CT for another exchange so I slapped a piece of duct tape over the hole. It didn't work. The duct-taped bag has already puffed back up to it's original size & the one other large bag that we haven't put away yet has also re-gained it's sucked out air.

We filled 4 large cubes & two extra large cubes with my stuffie collection & I have two (lavender scented!) under-the-bed storage bags filled as well. I'm not sure when I'll ever take them out of storage but I feel better knowing I still have them. As for the space bags, I'm afraid to look in the crawl space behind our little under-the-stair pantry, I'm sure the air has found it's way back into those bags too but as I've always said what you don't know won't hurt ya! The idea behind the Space Bags is great in theory, too bad they don't work. Save your money & use garbage bags or better yet keep buying totes! If the air can creep back into space bags I'm sure the other elements that these bags are guaranteed to keep out can find their way in as well.
Totes rule!

Here is a pic of poor hubby in the space behind our pantry trying to cram as many bags of stuffies & totes as he could fit into the little space under the stairs. He did good. Two big totes, one med sized tote, one mini tote, two ex-large space bag cubes & 3 large space bag cubes.
Good job honey!

Recycled Post

2009-04-06T13:33:00.005-04:00

...I posted this this afternoon on a message board I am a member of. While I was reading it over before I hit the submit button I decided it would work well as a blog post. Some of the things I've written may have already appeared in spots on my blog but I'm too lazy to re-write it!
here it is...

We're doing ok with the house but I'm terrified of starting on the garage.

I'm a hoarder & my Dad was too, maybe it's a genetic fault. My garage is still full of Harley parts & tools from my dad & a million other things that were my grandfathers.
When my grandfather got sick & retired he got rid of his metal shop & his plastics shop. He moved everything he was keeping from the shops into his basement & garage. Since my dad had already passed a lot of the stuff was stored in my garage too.

When my grandfather passed we sat on his house for a year deciding what to do with it. It was left to my mom & her younger sister, we all grew up there. My grandfather built it in 1950, the year my mom was born & I lived there with my parents & grandparents for the first 8 years of my life while we were buying back, then renovating the house next door. That house (where I am now) was built by my great-grandfather in the late 1920's early 1930's & was turned into a rooming house in the years it was out of my family. My dad had to completely gut it, move the stairs, re-do electric, plumbing & ductwork before it was livable again.

Anyways my mom & aunt eventually decided to sell my grandfathers house so we emptied out his garage & basement. Mostly everything that was kept went into my garage & a bit of the over flow went in to my basement. After we got the house ready to sell (it was even listed for a day) my mom decided to marry the guy she was dating after my dad died so they ended up keeping the house. But it didn't solve the problem of all the stuff stored in my garage. We got rid of most of the big equipment, the 4 & 10 foot brakes, the shear & the roller thing to bend metal & we got rid of the plating tank setup but I'm still stuck with the huge 1000lb plating rectifier, massive bandsaw & a bunch of other stuff.

When I think of starting on the garage I want to go back to bed, since we're still working on getting the house-clutter under control I'm thinking we should put off the garage until next summer but slowly start to put stuff in boxes & throw away/donate what we can before then so it won't be such a massive job.

As for the house it's coming along nicely, I started polyfilling the millions of thumbtack holes & we only have one more bookcase thing to move downstairs before we paint. I find that starting this little blog & keeping track of what I've done & still need to do is helping me a lot. Hubby is displaying some of his treasures on his 'new' shelves today & hopefully he'll get his drum kit set up as well. If you've visited my House of 1000 Boxes post (March 24th) & checked out the pic of what the basement looked like earlier this year you'll know how much we've already accomplished!

I've tried to tackle my clutter a million times before but I never was able to grasp that moving stuff around didn't really make a difference. Now that I've realized that I have to actually get rid of stuff & it's worked!

Til death do us part...

2009-04-05T00:19:00.006-04:00

There was an article in yesterday's Toronto Star about a couple who got married on their 25th anniversary. My husband & I were together for 10 years before we finally tied the knot & I think we have a stronger marriage because of it. So many people jump into relationships too quickly. I see it as diving off a dock without checking for rocks first. Being together 10 years allowed us plenty of time to figure out what we expected from one another. It also allowed us to work out which of the other's quirks, bad habits & annoyances we could change & which ones we had to learn to live with. Many of the weddings hubby & I attended as a couple have already ended in divorce or separation but our union is still going strong. I know we're only coming up on our third anniversary but we've been together for close to 13 years. 13 is a lot of years for a 32 year old!

I never really had a desire to be someone's wife, although now that I am I've never been happier but back then I was perfectly fine with never being married. However, I've always wanted a big party but I wanted something other than a snow white dress & lots of flowers. We spent many nights planning. Talking more about what we wanted to avoid rather than what we did want. In the end everything went off beautifully. I wore a black gown with a dark blue crinoline, a black veil & the garter my mom wore when she married my dad. Hubby wore big black creepers & a big top hat with a skull-topped walking stick. We didn't bother with the traditional engagement ring, instead we got matching tattoos & our wedding bands are styles we actually like rather than traditional boring designs. Our three tiered cake was black & blue & we chose a much less formal passed hors d'oeuvres reception rather than a stuffy sit down dinner & I'm sure our guests enjoyed the (what else but) open bar. We've been to quite a few big traditional white weddings & while they were sweet & beautiful they just weren't us.

Hubby is catholic...the kind that goes to church every Sunday, not just on x-mas & easter. He's starting to feel guilty about not getting married in his church & he's been told by his priest that taking communion while not being married 'in the eyes of god' is a sin. I agreed to it even though I think organized religion is a joke. I'm doing it because I love my husband...& because I love planning parties! So now I get to plan another wedding! We're thinking of September 9th. We got married on June 6th, 2006 (666), so it's only fitting that our second wedding will happen on 999. Obviously this one won't be as grand, with only close family & a couple of very close friends but it will still be awesome & who knows, I may even wear white this time.

I'm pretty friggen excited, not very many gals get to marry the same man twice!

Pooey-Dooey's Mani-Pedi

2009-04-04T12:21:00.004-04:00

Doo-ey (aka Jake, Pooey-Dooey, Jakey Doodle, the Doo, the Doodleler +others) is my mom & her hubby's Golden Retriever. He's almost two but he's still a big baby & I mean a BIG baby. At his last check-up he weighed in at. He's a pretty big guy & like a lot of big guys he's a real dummy, I joke that he's got doggie down-syndrome cause he acts goofy & he's always happy. He's a suck too, he's afraid to walk by my mom's basement door. Sometimes he sits in the kitchen & cries cause he doesn't want to be by himself but he's too scared to walk past the door. When he hears loud noises outside he barks his big-boy bark but then tries to get behind my mom.

Yesterday we tried out his fancy new Pedi-Paws gadget, I was surprised when it actually worked. I told Doo I had a treatie for him & he got all excited. We found some batteries & I switched it on & showed it to him. He licked it. I got him to give me his paw & I stuck one of his nails in. After a few seconds he decided he didn't like it. He ran from me & refused to come back. My mom got him some doggie bacon & we cornered him in the kitchen. She fed him little bits of 'bacon' while I ground down his claws. It smelled like burning hair, not pleasant at all. Doo-ey loves eating, as long as he had snacks he let me grind away. He even let me do his back paws. The motor stalled out a couple times. It's really like a mini drum sander or one of those Dremmel tools with a guard on it. It took longer than clipping would but I wasn't as worried about making him bleed. I'm still not sure if it's worth it or not though.

Blub-blub-blub

2009-04-03T23:58:00.002-04:00

So it's raining.
Hard.
Wanna come over for a swim in my basement pool? Be sure to bring your flippers.
Hubby & I are taking turns bailing out the basement. Water comes down the stairs under the back deck & runs right under the basement door. It's always happened but never as bad as it has in the last year. In the lowest spot the water is over an inch deep. As long as we keep on top of it we can stop the water from leaving the back room & creeping into the front of the basement. Our water problem has gotten to the point where we can't ignore it any longer. It's number two on our Spring project list...number one is dismantling the rabbit hutch, Knotty & Buttons are both gone now. If we ever get another bunny it's easy enough to build a new hutch.

We're going to try & solve the problem ourselves. We'll start by breaking up the walkway in the alley beside the house, it's starting to crumble so it shouldn't be too hard. There is a spot where the slab has been undermined by the water that poured out from where the eaves-trough came disconnected over the winter so we'll have to fill that in before we pour the new cement. I hate mixing cement, I'm such a girl sometimes. We're also going to get a load of dirt so we can grade away from the house under the back deck. If that doesn't work we're going to have to call in the big guns...who will want big bucks.
Sucks to be us.

There's a sucker born every minute

2009-04-02T17:43:00.005-04:00

I know this because I'm one. Even as a child I was conned by tv infomercials, I can remember begging (& crying even) cause I wanted a bedazzler so badly. When I look at old pictures of myself I'm thrilled my parents said no. I'm lucky to have escaped the 80's with very few pics of me in ridiculous outfits, I credit that to being born in 1976. I was young enough that I still listened to my parents...most of the time anyway.

I really am a sucker though, when I see the Sham-Wow guy my eyes glaze over. Could it really be that absorbent? I love how it sucks the pop right out of the carpet sample, is that even possible? Hubby is less of a sucker than I am. He wants to know if it's so absorbent how is it machine washable like the Sham-Wow guy claims? Hubby says it would suck up all the water in the washer, he's so clever! Oh & I'd kill for a Pedi-Egg! My nasty, mostly shoeless summertime feet dream of Pedi-Eggs.

My late night order arrived today. I just got suckered into buying Pedi-Paws to trim Doo-ey's nails & Smooth Away, you know that sandpaper specially designed to grind away unwanted body hair. It came in a small box with a pretty green vinyl travel case, a larger pink (sanding block?) pad, a smaller pink pad for mustaches (& pusses perhaps?) & three pieces of each size sand paper with a glue pad on one side. It does work but I think I sanded too hard, the area where my mustache used to be is red & sore. I think I did ok with my neck tattoo though but we'll see how many ingrown hairs I end up with in a week or two when my sanded-down hair begins to resurface. I haven't tried the Pedi-Paws out yet, as-seen-on-tv gadgets apparently don't come with batteries included. I sure it will be just as easy to sand into
Doo-ey's quick as it is to trim into it but we'll see.

That room

2009-04-01T16:02:00.004-04:00

Well, as it turns out reconstructing the crazy room is going to involve much more than clearing off the walls & ceiling & giving everything a few licks of paint.

The walls are in such bad shape it's going to take a few shots of polyfil to clean up all the holes & the spots where pulling off tape removed the old paint (in some cases the paper layer of the drywall too) I'm not even sure where to begin in removing the tape residue. I'm going to try & sand it off. I wasn't going to bother with a coat of primer but it's probably something I shouldn't skip.

Oh & the desk I was counting on is massive! I should of measured it before I started dreaming about it. It's waaay too big for my tiny little 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 foot room. I've picked out a new smaller desk, it's a bunch cheaper but no where near as fancy as the pretty glass-topped one I was originally planning on. I've measured everything out carefully & while my first pick will fit it would look silly in such a small room. As for planning before measuring don't even get me started on lighting. I was looking at a small pink chandelier but the ceiling is pretty low so I'm not sure I can get away with it...so back to the drawing board I go.

Another issue is the window. We're going to have to frame it, it was never finished so it's just a rectangular hole cut in the wall with the (new) window stuck in the hole. I think the hardest part will be matching the trim used in the rest of the room/house & measuring the cuts. We have access to a chop saw so getting the angles right should be fairly easy as long as we measure correctly. Once the walls are prepared we can get painting, I have my purple all picked out. Pratt & Lambert #29-16 Imperial & we're going to buy from a local independent shop instead of buying at Home Depot like we usually do. I have no idea what colour to paint my trim though, I'm thinking black but I'm not sure...any suggestions would be happily welcomed!

My remaining stuffie collection has also posed a bit of a problem. Even after picking out two garbage bags full I still ended up with two bookcases packed tight. I'm toying with the idea of getting some of those as-seen-on-tv magic vacuum storage bags & storing them under the stairs with hubby's totes of hockey cards/collectibles. Eventually I'd like a new bookcase for them but I'll stick them behind the door so only I will know they're there but even that will involve cramming everything onto one bookcase.

Hubby is right, I never think things through & I never finish what I start! After buying the new dressers for our bedroom last year & hanging our awesome big black chandelier I never did get around to painting or buying a new bed. I hate painting & our bedroom has a cathedral ceiling so it's gonna be a bitch painting so high up. Last year I threw away our closet doors cause they were mirrored & ugly. Guess what...we still don't have new ones & to make things even worse our clothes are starting to get dusty & I haven't even decided what style of doors to buy yet. I have to make myself finish everything up before I start on anymore projects.

A pic of our started & never finished bedroom...

Back to the Underground

2009-03-31T01:40:00.001-04:00

De-cluttering the basement is coming along nicely, so nicely that I'm already thinking of paint colours. The one wall is poured concrete, it's the inside wall so it's always dry but I'm still wary of putting up drywall before we have our water problem under control. The bar we were at last week was a pale mustardy yellow with dark wood so I'm thinking that would work but I think a pale-ish olive green would be nice too. This is hubby's spot so it can't be too feminine. I filled a clear glass vase with a bunch of our autographed drumsticks & put it on a table we have set up down there & he seemed to like the idea but i know not to go too far. He's going to set his drum kit up this weekend, it's been stacked & buried in the corner pile for the past year or so. I'll bet he's aching to get playing again. Somehow I don't think his Guitar Hero drum kit allows him to get the same amount of frustration out as he would if he was on a real kit.

We desperately need to put a ceiling in. Those of you without un-finished basements couldn't possibly imagine how dusty the house gets in the winter. The furnace picks up all our basement dust & blows it through the house. We've bought the best furnace filters & they don't make much of a difference. I'm hoping a having ceiling instead of bare joists will make the dust situation a bit better. I like the look of those old fashioned tin tiles, I've seen reproductions made out of plastic, they're cheaper & are supposed to be easier to install.
We can only hope.

Babies in Bars...grrr

2009-03-30T22:20:00.009-04:00

Why on earth do some parents think a bar is an appropriate place to bring their infants? The bars in question aren't the local hillbilly bars either. These are the newer, nicer, trendier places.

Some guy was boo-hooing on facebook about a recently opened neighbourhood place not having high chairs. The waitstaff later mentioned that they wouldn't be getting any because they wanted to be a pub not a resto. The boo-hooer gave them a crappy review (we hit it on Saturday & we found everything to be super) then he suggested that people drink & dine elsewhere.

I know parents think their children are little miracles but they never stop to think that the majority of people around them aren't interested in having their night out ruined by howling babies.
When I'm out at a bar I don't want to hear your kid screaming & if you insist on bringing it & it does start fussing at least try to shut it up. Don't just sit there with your glass of wine continuing your conversation. You may be used to the shrill screeching of your little darling but you have to understand that there are people around you that are trying to relax & have a nice night out.

Thank you to the parents of young children who are considerate enough to leave their spawn at home when they go out drinking.

Earth Hour Day!

2009-03-28T23:48:00.002-04:00

We did not get a single thing done with the house today.
& I'm cool with it!
We went for a jacketless walk along Queen St & hubby took me to the new Leslieville location of Ed's Real Scoop for ice cream...which was awesome, friendly people & amazing ice cream. After our treat we checked out The Roy, a new neighbourhood pub. The Roy was great, a beautiful space & super friendly, attentive staff. We were just stopping in for a beer but we ended up staying for 4 (-5?). I was worried about what type of people would be drinking at noon but they all seemed normal. It wasn't filled with snobby types & was surprisingly busy for being so early on a Saturday afternoon.

We did some grocery shopping & got home just before Earth Hour. Hubby went to bed but I switched everything possible off & even turned down the thermostat. I lit a few candles & my mom came in to chat since her hubby was watching the Leafs game. I was surprised & disappointed that so few houses participated. Almost every house I could see had some lights on & the ones that didn't are usually quite dark anyway. Some houses had their porch lights on, one had their x-mas lights on (still) & one almost directly across from me had lights on in every room I could see. My mom & I were discussing how they should shut off the streetlights or at least every second or third light. It seems ridiculous to have us turn off our house lights but still have the street ablaze with city lights.

Who bakes cookies at 2am?

2009-03-26T02:41:00.003-04:00

So tonight is another night of no-can-sleep. I know better than to go to bed cause I'll just lie there & stare at the ceiling thinking crazy thoughts. I'm trying to not medicate myself cause when I do it too often my magic pills seem to stop working.

I try to get things done when I can't sleep. Tonight I made hubby's dinner for when he gets home from work, did all the dishes...twice. Now I'm watching my chocochip walnut oatmeal cookies bake while I'm waiting for my second load of laundry to finish so I can hang it before I go upstairs to put a clean duvet cover on, make up the bed with fresh sheets & read a bit till I'm able to fall asleep. If that doesn't work I'm screwed. I need a dog to walk & I can't steal Dooey cause my mom & her hubby are sleeping so their house is locked up tight.

I'm thinking of getting an elliptical so I can do a bit of exercise before bedtime to see if I can't tire myself out. The bonus would be possibly losing a bit of the weight I've gained being a housewife over these last few months. I love eating. I bought myself a treadmill years ago but it was too noisy so it lived in the basement under a blanket of dust for many years until I sold it for $25 at last summers yardsale. I can't wait for summer to get here. I usually sleep better in the summer, not sure why though. It could be because I tend to wake up a bit earlier when the sunlight shines through my bedroom window.

oooh, I hear my laundry beeping...time to go back to work...sigh

House of 1000 Boxes...small update

2009-03-25T01:43:00.005-04:00

I hate having to pay for garbage pick up, doesn't the property tax we pay cover that already? The city gives us 5 garbage tags a year to use for overflow, stuff that won't fit in our bin. We used one after x-mas & we used two today. When they sent around the order forms for the new Toronto garbage & recycling bins we chose large for recycling & medium for our garbage, medium is supposed to hold one & a half standard size bags. Garbage pick up is every two weeks & we've only completely filled it a few times. On the other hand our giant recycling bin is filled to the top every other week. I'm mostly to blame with my five+ cans a day club soda habit & my newspaper subscriptions.

I'm happy to say that I've started to pass on my magazines again, I'm pleased that gals other than my mom & I will have the chance to read them before they're tossed. Anything is better than saving them though, that's another thing I struggle with. Last year I uncovered an ancient box of three years worth of Martha Stewart Living & Bon Appetit, six or seven of Cosmo & just after x-mas I freecycled almost 10 years of National Geographics. I picked up this months issue of Cosmo & I struggled through it. I can't beleive I used to enjoy that crap. It's like Seventeen but with sex tips tossed in. I guess I really am growing up. Better late than never.

Oops got sidetracked...my small update is that we got rid of most of the junk we collected in the basement tonight, garbage day is tomorrow so by the time I crawl out of bed it should have all disappeared! All thats left downstairs are some old paint cans, some wood scraps we can't burn, a few jugs of grout mix, some sheets of paneling & dozen bags of cement that got damp & solidified but we're gonna need to put that shit in a truck to dump ourselves. I'm pretty sure the garbage men won't take hard bags of cement & old paint is considered a hazardous waste so we have to take that to the depot when we go to dump the rest. I'm quite pleased with all we accomplished this week even if we do have to wait a bit to finally be rid of everything. I even pulled the hard drive out of a super old computer & chucked the rest cause I couldn't remember if I deleted everything on it or not.

I think we did a great job & I'm pleased that a home has been found for the cabinet, I'm happy it won't be rotting in a landfill...at least not for a few years anyway.
There's a lot of work still to be done though, clearing space just gives us the room to do it!

I feel like I should include a pick just so you can see how hard we worked.
This is a fresh pic, less than an hour old plus a pic of where most of our 'keepers' are being stored. I feel a bit less crazy already!

House of 1000 Boxes

2009-03-24T17:06:00.006-04:00

In trying to get our clutter problem under control I've discovered that there is no point in just moving piles of crap from room to room. I actually have to get rid of stuff. Since hubby has moved in (4+ years) we've donated about 30 garbage bags of linens, old clothes & random things that will fit in bags. We've also filled a small truck with boxes of toys, gadgets & randomness. Over the last few years we've put three desks, four dressers, three tables, four chairs, two benches, one tv cabinet, 3 couches & two mattress/boxspring sets out on the front lawn for garbage pick up plus a bunch of other stuff I've forgotten about. The only items that lasted until the garbage truck were two of the couches & the tv thing. The neighbourhood scavengers picked up the rest. Last summer we had two yardsales. In the end we've barely made a dent. I've gotten rid of more stuff than most people own but I'm still overwhelmed by the amount of stuff we still have.

I'm addicted to books, I read a few a week. I only read new books aside from maybe ten or twenty I've found in perfect shape that I've picked up at used bookstores. I used to read library books as a child. Now the library is my worst nightmare, some of those books are filthy! I buy books like a nutcase but I'm doing good though. I only have five bookcases of books scattered around the house. I don't save much of the fiction, memoirs or pocketbooks I read & I've learned to pass those on as soon as I get the chance rather than let them pile up & become a problem...except the 6 boxes in the basement...but we're not going to discuss those now.

Hubby & I both love music, loud heavy rock & thrash metal is what we crave. When he moved in we combined our cd collections & ended up with over 300 doubles which we promptly sold on ebay to offset the cost of some of the crap we were buying for our wedding. We still had a massive problem though, we had two large billy bookcases from Ikea filled with cds. Last year we decided to go through our collection & purge all the discs that we didn't think we'd ever listen to again. We sold or gave away four shelves of double stacked discs. Each row fits about 70 cds so that's close to 600 discs we cleared out but what did I do with the space? I started buying more dvds since now I had more room to store them. My husband is afraid I'll do the same to fill the other empty spaces we've made in the house. I'm afraid I might too.

Hoarding is a sickness, I've read that it's both a symptom & a cause of mental illness. My dad was the same way, long after the house is done I'll still have to deal with a garage full of my daddy's clutter. I have so much stuff that nothing ever gets a chance to wear out. It's a curse cause if something got ratty looking or broken I'd have no problem throwing it away. Now I only abandon stuff when I get tired of it & replace it. Once I get bored with something it just gets stuffed in a drawer, my antique pirates chest, a box or closet, from there usually when crap starts to overflow my hiding spots it all gets moved to one of the two bedrooms. But eventually everything ends up in the basement. The basement is the graveyard of my life, this is the house of 1000 boxes.

So you know I'm not shitting ya here's a pic I took of our basement in January of this year.

My poor little room looks so sad...& boring

2009-03-23T19:47:00.005-04:00

Well, I've got a cup full of bent tacks & a broken thumbnail but the walls (& ceiling) in my crazy room are bare.
I started doing it while hubby was at work but I had to stop to cry a couple times while I was taking stuff down. I got him to help out today & we finished it without me having any emotional breakdowns. It's waaay too easy to think sad thoughts when I'm alone & doing something that involves so many memories. I have one small tote full of knicky-knacks & an Ikea file box full of all the flat things that were on the walls & the balloons & pennants that were on the ceiling. We still need to sort through the million things that cover the floor & fill the three bookcases.

We filled a box of stuff to donate, a garbage bag of garbage, another (this is the 2nd) garbage bag of stuffies for bro-in-law's baby-to-be & I somehow suckered my mom into taking two rather large chinadolls to live with her. we've cleared all that stuff out of the room but it barely made a dent in the amount of crap still crammed in there. It's overwhelming to think about how much we've already done & how much we still have to do.
Sometimes I just want to close the door & forget about it.

On the weekend hubby brought home 3 more huge totes & we filled those in the basement this morning. We emptied out a large metal cabinet that was filled with glasses & barware & a bunch of souvenir go-cups from our yearly travels to New Orleans. Now we have to haul the cabinet upstairs, tomorrow is garbage day but I'd prefer that someone actually use it rather than have it sit in a landfill for a billion years. I want it out of the house so bad but I'm afraid to freecycle it cause it will be a hassle having it sit in the living room until someone comes to pick it up. Plus we still have the problem of the old metal desk in the ex-crazy room too. It still has to come downstairs...possibly in pieces if it doesn't fit around the corner in the hall. If worse comes to worse the scrappers will take it away if someone else doesn't grab them off the lawn first.

One of our new totes got filled with stuff that came with hubby from the apartment he shared with his aunt & uncle. They were like parents to him, he had lived with them since he was a kid. I couldn't believe the stuff he had stored in our sometimes-wet basement, in a cardboard box no less! He has pics of his uncle from WWII, the candle from his uncle's baptism, ancient photos, the visitor book from his uncles father funeral in 1925, even copies of his uncles parents marriage certificate. These are things that should NEVER have been stored in our basement. I don't think he knows how lucky he is that nothing was destroyed. Over the next few days we're going to go through his treasures to see what needs to come upstairs & what can stay down. Part of the reason I'm getting rid of cardboard & using plastic totes is because I'm afraid of the basement flooding. Spring is here, it's only a matter of time before we get some water. Who wants a house full of damp treasures & moldy boxes...not me! Plastic totes are a godsend!

Twitter me this

2009-03-21T15:27:00.003-04:00

I've been hearing about it for months now.
It's something that couldn't have been avoided.
I just joined Twitter.
I think it was calling posts tweets that hooked me. It sounds pretty simple & I've figured out how to stick my updates on my blog so I'm feeling pretty clever but I think I need to find a twitter to english dictionary though cause I'm not quite familiar with all the fancy twitter lingo yet.

I feel like I'm cheating on facebook but with all the wrong they've done me over the last two big updates I kinda feel like I wanna screw around on them a bit to hurt them back. I had just gotten used to the new layout when they changed the way newsfeed works. Now I'm being bombarded with the results of the last 20 pointless tests my facebook pals have taken. Not to mention getting updates for all the spring flowers & easter eggs they've handed out. I've taken to blocking each app as they appear on my newsfeed. I made the mistake of letting them build up for a few days & it's one I'm not making again. When I checked my facebook earlier I blocked 4apps & I'm expecting another 3 or 4 to have appeared by the time I pop back later on.

When non-facebook-developed applications first came out they were fun & exciting. I added a bunch but the allure quickly wore off when developers were either too stupid or too lazy to fix their broken or buggy programs. Other apps were just plain stupid so I deleted most of them. Before the last big facebook update there were a few friends profiles that I'd never go to since their page took forever to load (& I have a shiny new lappy) because of the huge number of crappy apps they had added. I still have a few useful ones on my page & I just added the twitter app so I don't think I've gone overboard. When I first joined facebook I'd accept every invitation cause I was afraid of hurting feelings or offending my pals but now I understand that many apps force you to invite a certain number of people to get your quiz 'results' so I ignore (now block) almost everything, sorry kiddies but my sanity (what little I have left) is worth more to me than your hurt feelings from me not accepting your invite/s.

Hopefully twitter will turn out to be as alluring as all the articles I've read have made it sound & our relationship will be a long & happy one...at least until the next new big thing comes along!

The Room.

2009-03-20T17:05:00.006-04:00

It had to happen eventually.
I'm 32 now, almost 33.
Married, childfree women in their 30's do not have rooms that look like this. Ever.
It's been fun adding to my 'collection of insanity' over the last 20-some-odd years but it's time to embrace normalcy & clean that shit up. My slideshow pics were taken after we had already filled a garbage bag with stuffies for bro-in-laws baby-to-be so you can imagine how much more clutter there was last week.

This room has been fun. When my father renovated back in the 80's I wasn't allowed to stick anything to the walls in my bedroom. The plan for the crazy room (really it was my play-room) always involved a big bay window on the back wall so daddy decided to let me put some posters up since most of the wall would eventually be removed. Somewhere along the line I completely lost it & started sticking stuff everywhere. I come from a long line of procrastinators. My dad never did get around to finishing his project & now he is gone. The back window was the only window in the house that wasn't replaced during the renovation. A few years back when we replaced most of the other windows in the house we did the back one too. It's not a bay window & probably never will be but hubby & I are ok with it.

The room is the most popular destination spot in the house. First time visitors are always asked 'have you seen the room?' almost as soon as they walked in the door. My younger cousins were awed by it & adults felt claustrophobic, most didn't understand, but I kinda didn't either. Last year an awesome local band used it for a photo shoot. Years ago it won me a $500 Ikea gift card in an messy space contest, the other people who entered the contest didn't have a snowballs chance in hell of winning. Now that 'the room' has had it's taste of well deserved fame it can be put to rest.

Later on tonight I'll be going up with the first of many empty boxes. The first will be for knicky-knacks the second will be for stuff stuck on the wall & many more boxes of craziness & happy will follow. I will be donating everything I can bear to part with...there won't be much, I'm a pack rat. Everything has so many memories wrapped around it most will be saved & packed neatly away. Eventually the shelving units will be moved into the basement & the black dresser (project no.1) will be moved in along with a massive (also to be painted black) wardrobe that is too big for the space it occupies now. I'll be adding a new black bookcase & glass-topped desk & once the thousands of thumbtack holes are patched we'll be painting...dark purple, a room with this much awesomeness in it's past deserves something much more exciting than beige.

I hope it will be happy with it's new semi-grown-up look. I have a hard time with change. I've convinced myself that I can always build the insanity back up if I miss it too hard. I never will but it's comforting knowing I can.

FreeCycle FreeLoaders

2009-03-19T21:42:00.007-04:00

I listed a whole whack of stuff on freecycle earlier this week. In cleaning out the basement we found a ton of crap we don't need. We've already stuffed 4 garbage bags of randomness in the crippy box & we've got another four bags to go but I set a few of our purged items aside to offer on freecycle. I like the idea that someone looking for a specific item can get it from me for free rather than buy my donated crap from value village.

So far I've only posted offers twice & I have had good experiences both times. The fella who picked up our first offer even mentioned that he was a computer tech & to let him know if we ever needed help. Such a nice offer, I'd never ever bug him but it was sweet of him to say.

People can request items too. I've never requested anything, partially because that would defeat the purpose of me joining freecycle in the first place...to get rid of junk...not to bring more home but mostly because other peoples stuff creeps me out!
***with the exception of certain treasures from auctions & antique shops!

Today a dude contacted me saying he would take pretty much everything I had listed, acting like he was doing me some kind of favour. If I ever responded to someones offer I'd be gracious enough to thank them for the offer & clever enough to realize that the OFFER-ee is the one doing the favour. It's 1000 times quicker & easier for me to stuff a bag in a donation box or walk a package over to value village than it is for me to make arraignments for a pick-up. I have to figure out a time when they can come & both my husband & I will be home. I'm probably being paranoid but I won't have a complete stranger drop by when I'm home alone. Plus I get social anxiety worrying about talking to a stranger or about other stupid little things & whether or not they are going to show or if I won't hear them knocking if I run upstairs to take a piss.

I've read on message boards about nightmare freecyclers. People who take packages left for others when they drop by to pick up their own gifted item. People who have had stuff stolen from their front porch by pick-up-ees & people who have had pick-up-ees ask for other obviously-not-being-given-away items that they spot while collecting an offer. I even read about someone who asked to look around in the offer-ees basement & garage to see if the offer-ee had anything else they'd be interested in. How friggen rude can some people be!?

Freecycle wanted ads are good for a laugh too. Some weirdos ask for all sorts of high-end electronics & gadgets. Some of them even have the gall to ask for new, unused items. When I decide who my goodies go to I always pick someone who is polite & grateful & who writes in a complete sentence, not an email from someone who writes 'ill take it where do u live'

I don't want someone to kneel before me & kiss my pinky ring, but I'd appreciate a simple 'thanks'!

It's quite easy being green

2009-03-17T17:45:00.005-04:00

It's tradition for my family to have corned beef & cabbage for supper on St Paddy's Day. I've got quite a bit of Irish in my background, along with English, French, Scottish & a small sprinkling of Italian. Corned beef is something we've done for as long as I can remember. Right now as I am cooking mine & hubby's my Mom is next door in her kitchen cooking the exact same thing, the exact same way!

I loved veggies as a child. I adored my father so I ate everything he did, if it was good enough for him it was good enough for me. I even ate liver but mommy cooked mine without the onions. Carrots (&onions) were one of the very few vegetables I didn't like. As a matter of fact I hated carrots until about 2 years ago but there was always something special about corned beef & cabbage carrots & I'd eat as many as my mom would put on my plate.

Our corned beef St Paddy's dinner is something new to my husband. I don't think his mom or aunt did anything similar, at least not regularly but he's seemed to embrace it. He even knows what type of bread to pick up...you know the kind that's almost black & weighs a ton. I could live on that bread, I love it. There's something soothing about traditional meals be it something as simple to prepare as corned beef or as complex as a massive turkey & ham dinner with ALL the fixin's.

It's this simple...
Throw a big pot of water on the stove & toss in your corned beef & a peeled cooking onion. Let it boil for about 2 hours & then toss in your peeled potatoes & carrots. I halve or quarter my potatoes depending on their size & carrots I cut in half & then cut each half into quarters so I have eight long-ish pieces. Once the carrots & potatoes are tender throw in as much cabbage as you can fit in the pot & let it simmer until the cabbage is nice & tender. Serve with black bread smeared with creamy butter, a dill pickle or two & a mug of green beer...of course! I made cuppy-cakes for dessert too, I am the queen of cuppy-cakes. I used ready-made frosting this time instead of my standard buttercream (butter beat with icing sugar) & I was really disappointed with the limp icing. It would barely hold a peak & the icing actually slid off the top of two cupcakes. sigh.

This year has one other small disappointment...
For the last few years we've still had snow on the lawns for St Patrick's Day. I always get out with a spray bottle filled with water & green food colouring to tint our snow green but this year the snow had already melted.
Oh well, I'll take an early spring over painted green snow any day!

That House.

2009-03-16T23:48:00.001-04:00

I live across the street from a rooming house.

Not just any rooming house but one owned by the Toronto Community Housing Corp. It makes my life a living hell during the warm weather with the crackies sitting on the front porch all night drinking & fighting. Normally winters are very quiet but not this year. Most of the residents are older men but there is one younger girl that has been there for a couple years now. I hate her & her dirtbag friends. She's got something going on with a tow truck driver & he idles his massive flat bed tow truck in front of my house three to four times a week. He always arrives between one & four in the morning & the lights shine right into our bedroom & the truck is so loud the vibrations rattle the front windows. It's impossible to sleep through & he doesn't just drop her off & leave, he's usually there for anywhere between 20 minutes & 2 hours. I don't know if he's killing time before his next call or what but it drives me crazy. I don't understand how I'm the only person who notices this asshole but it pisses me off. I called the cops last week (see my busybody story) but he left before the cops arrived. I know that it's almost impossible to fight a city home but I'm sure it would easier if I had some of the other residents behind me.

What we have to deal with is insane. I just managed to get someone from the city down here to deal with a filthy mattress that had been on their front lawn since x-mas & there is always a pile of debris around their garbage & recycling bins which they store at the bottom of the lawn. Late last year the chick threw a towel out the front window & it froze to the roof & stuck for two weeks. Last summer she threw a bunch of clothes into the middle of the street on two occasions. They keep their propane BBQ on their covered front porch, I'm surprised they haven't burnt the house down yet. The chick is constantly on her cell phone & she's often yelling into it, three pm or three am, it makes no difference to her. She has a friend who shouts more than anyone I've ever heard & generally causes some sort of disruption every time she comes around.

My neighbourhood (Leslieville) is what they call an up & comer. We have a lot of new people moving in to the area. Young professionals if you get my drift...many of them are the bleeding heart type. I don't think they've ever lived close to a house like this. They don't understand that animals should stay with animals, there is no place for people who act like pigs in our community. They should keep the dirtbags with the rest of the dirtbags. I have an overwhelming urge to hunt down the people who are looking to buy the market-value units in the newly re-built projects like Regent Park & Don Mount Court & tell them what they are getting themselves into. They're in for a rude awakening if they think they are going to live a normal peaceful life in their new homes when they are surrounded by social housing.

Last year there was an article in Toronto Life magazine about TCHC being a slumlord. In the article they featured a few families, mostly single moms, & their sob stories. There were also a few photos. One of the stories mentioned all the things that were wrong with a unit but in the accompanying photo you could see that half of the issues mentioned were caused by the woman or her kids. Cupboard doors were ripped off, there were holes punched in the walls which were filthy & both sides of the double sink were overflowing with dirty dishes. There was no reason she couldn't patch the holes & fix the hinges on the cupboards, it's not rocket science. At the very least she could have washed the filth off the walls & done her friggen dishes. All the article proved to me was that she wasn't interested in doing anything to help herself out, all she wanted to do was whine about how life had shit on her & hold her hand out for some more handouts.

Don't get me wrong, some people truly want a hand up not a handout. Some moms suddenly find themselves single & need help raising their kids while they go back to school &/or get their lives together. Some people get hurt or sick or go crazy & lose their jobs but want help getting back into the workforce. It's sad but from what I've seen those people are the minority. A few girls I know from the area had babies in their teens & when their welfare social worker bugged them about looking for a job when the child got older they shat out another one & then bragged to whoever would listen about getting a bigger cheque. One woman I know bragged that she was third generation welfare & that her kids would be the 4th. She knew every trick in the book to get extra. She knew how often she could get "emergency" cheques, moving allowances, clothing allowances for back to school (even though her kids weren't in school) & x-mas. Listening to her talk made me want to slap her. She admitted (while laughing) that once she left her two young kids on her caseworkers desk when they refused to give her extra. She said she starting walking away & they called her back & issued her another cheque. This woman told this story a few times, she had no shame. All I could wonder was why didn't they call children's aid to save those poor kids.

It's one thing to be dirt poor but it's a completely different thing to just be dirt. If you are lucky enough to live for free or close to free on a nice street, try & act like a human. Don't set off fireworks at three am or have your asshole boyfriend idle his truck all night. Mow your lawn & shovel your snow. Don't let your drugged out friends try & kick your door down. Pick up after your dog, pick up your garbage & don't let your drunken friends party in the street keeping the neighbours with jobs awake all night. Don't get in screaming, swearing arguments with other chicks while you're holding your infant. Just try & act civilized.
Don't make us hate you.

Ratty Cake, Ratty Cake...

2009-03-15T01:47:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago my stepfather noticed a rat under the backyard bird feeder. (My mom & stepfather are our next door neighbours...but that's a story for another time) I like rats, I've had a few rats as pets over the years. I think they're just like little doggies only they're smarter & shed less. Since I heard I've been watching for it & last week I finally spotted him! He looked really healthy, not like what you'd expect for a city-rat.
He looked more like a little Disney character. I almost expected him to break into song.
I was watching him eat the bird seed the messy birds had spilled on the ground & I saw another little brownish creature creep out from beside the garage. I went to get my camera & while I was trying to get a good pic I noticed another rat on my side of the fence...& then another under my chimenea.

All in all I saw five rats. It was four in the afternoon. If five rats are out during the day scampering around how many are there? I joked with my mom that we'd be out on the garden swing this summer & the rats would crawl up our legs & chew our lips off. We've noticed rats in the past around the dumpster in the alley behind the neighbourhood nursing home but we haven't seen any in our yard for years. (aside from the dead one we found in our basement last year...I may re-visit that story later) We hadn't seen any since our neighbours were renting out their garage to a couple with a hotdog cart...stay away from those hotdogs...every morning they'd pull the cart out of the garage & drag it across the street to the beer store parking lot. They stored all of their tasty treats in the dirty garage. The garage didn't have any power but eventually they ran an extension cord out from the house & they put a freezer in there.
Oh yeah they didn't have running water either...mmm.

I don't kill things. I couldn't even step on the giant New Orleanian cockroach that cornered me in a bar washroom the first year we visited. My mom convinced me that rats are disease carrying vermin & we couldn't just let it go. I went down to our neighbourhood crappy tire to buy some traps. I was looking for live traps but I guess live traps for rats aren't a big seller. I was planning on relocating any rats I caught at the Leslie Street Spit but my mom & hubby told me they'd harm the other critters that already made the spit home. It sounded like bullshit to me but I didn't want to risk it. I grabbed a good old fashioned rat-sized Victor spring trap but I had a mini panic attack & couldn't breathe so I went home without buying any but I sent hubby back later. So far we've caught three. Hubby is in charge of operation rat. I made the mistake of looking at the first rat we caught & I spent an hour bawling. It seems so unfair to lure them to their gruesome deaths with pea-nutty goodness. It seems even more unfair that we're using organic only-peanut peanut butter with no unhealthy additives.

I sent an email to our local councilor & they are following up on the issue as well so hopefully we'll be able to feed the birdies again soon without bringing rats into our yards. We haven't caught any in a couple of days now so maybe working together we've solved the problem.

The Case of the Secret Shitter

2009-03-14T19:12:00.003-04:00

Somebody in this house is a secret shitter.
We were looking for more storage space since the clutter in the basement is disgusting. We remembered the somewhat empty space under the basement stairs. It was wasted space & we figured we could cram a bunch of rubbermaid totes in that spot. When we pulled down the piece of drywall we had blocking the space we found a massive pile of catshit. I thought cats were clean animals...I guess mine aren't. This was a lot of shit. I'm not talking about a turd or two, it was actually a million shits in a pile about 4 inches high. As we were cleaning up the filth both our cats wandered down to check out what we were doing. I tried looking at their little kitty faces to see if either of them looked guilty but what does cat-guilt really look like? I couldn't tell. The only thing that was destroyed was a box of my old school work. At first I was upset cause I thought it was my kindergarten art, I'm an only child & my parents saved EVERYTHING but the box was just full of stuff from grade school & junior high. I was relived to find out that my mom has all my kindergarten stuff stashed in her basement. For some fucked up cat reason the little bastards were pissing in the box of paper but shitting in the corner.
Cats, who knows how their twisted little minds work.

At least I know why the front room of the basement always stunk. I'd regularly go down & wash the floor with bleach & hot water but after a few days I could smell the stench of catbox again. I thought my husband was slacking with his litter duties but I guess not, I should probably apologize for bitching about it. We managed to shove about 8 large totes in the space & since it's only stuff we aren't ready to part with yet we decided there would be no harm in completely covering the opening with chicken wire so the cats can't get in but air can still circulate.
I guess our fuzzy friends will be looking for a new place to shit now...we'll have to keep our eyes open.

*** they don't look like secret shitters do they?

Ghost of a Train

2009-03-12T18:45:00.007-04:00

When I stripped down the dresser (project #1) I discovered a pale spot on the door. When I looked at it more closely I could see that it was where the original decal was. I called my mother in to see it & before she even looked she said remembered that it was a train! We were surprised that we could still see the shadow of it. The train was the first of a few decals over the years. In 1950 when my mom was born the dresser was stained wood with the train on the door. After that it was painted a few times, I found traces of pink & blue paint on the back & sides of drawers but by the time it was mine in 1976 it had been painted white with a blue bunny decal on the door. When I got my grown-up princess bedroom set we didn't need my baby dresser anymore so my uncle stripped the baby dresser back to wood for my cousins complete with a brand new decal!
Now it's black! I still haven't completely finished painting yet. I want to let the paint dry well between coats but it looks great...except for the top where the paint went on weird...damn gloss!I was toying with the idea of stripping the top again & starting fresh but in the end it'll have a glass top so it doesn't really matter. I still haven't cleared a space for it in the crazy room so it's driving me nuts taking up space in my tiny kitchen.

...that will be project # 2...
Stay tuned kiddies, this will be an exciting one!

Dead

2009-03-10T01:39:00.001-04:00

I'm obsessed with death. It can't be healthy. When I look at old pictures before I even realize what I'm doing I think about who in the photo is dead. When I watch old movies (or even newer ones) I can't help but think which actors have died. Disney classics are the worst for me, I think of all the dead voices & animators. Oh & old Santa pictures from x-masses past...I always think Santa is dead.
Last year both our pet bunnies died. One was ancient, the other not so old When I "talk" to our older cat I tell him we love him & ask him not to die. He's next, he's the older of our two cats. We're toying with the idea of getting a puppy. We've chosen the breed already, he will be an English Bulldog. I've looked it up, they don't live very long. I'm obsessing about it already & we haven't even found a breeder yet.

Deaths come in threes.
They really do. One death can happen but as soon as you hear about a second one you know a third will follow. I know this because I used to keep track. I make lists. I'm a list maker. It's a sickness. My dead list was lists of people I knew who had died grouped into threes. I know it sounds insane but I kept track until I realized how insane it sounded so I threw that list away. The list had rules. It had to be someone I knew or someone who was close to a close friend & the three deaths had to have happened within three months of each other.

I'm terrified of my mother & husband dying. My mom has some health issues & my husband has a big mouth. When the phone rings in the night I can't breathe.
Without my mom & my hubby I don't want to be here.

Project no.1

2009-03-05T16:37:00.005-05:00

So the dresser has made it up to the kitchen...finally. It was my dresser when I was a baby & my mom & aunt used it as children too. It's nothing fancy but it's pretty solid as it's made of wood...real wood not that particle board crap like my Ikea stuff. After I was finished with it my uncle stripped it down & stained it for my cousins. It was always baby furniture so no matter what colour it was it always had a blue animal decal on the door.
The last cousins to use it covered it with stickers. Little brats.

I didn't want to use a chemical stripper but trying to get the stickers off with a scraper was taking too long & was too messy. I had little bits of stickers stuck to my arms, feet & pantleg for hours. I kept finding more little pieces stuck to stuff. in the middle of the night my white Persian cat came flying out of nowhere with a sticker stuck in his tail. He didn't seem too happy about it & I had to chase him to get it unstuck. I finally got fed up & searched for the jug of stripper, good old Poly-Strippa will melt anything, plus I got high for free!

Since I'm painting it I'm only stripping the top, door & drawer fronts. I'm only giving the sides a light sanding. Originally I was going to strip it completely & stain it but I've decided to paint it black...I saw it in a magazine. Eventually I'll get a piece of glass for the top & I'm using cut glass drawer pulls. I'm also adding a shelf to the side cabinet since I won't be using the hang bar. It's not going to be fine furniture but it will be perfect for me.

I hope.

My dirty little secret...well one of them anyway...

2009-03-04T01:49:00.004-05:00

It's almost 2am & I just ate an awesome steak. But that's not my secret.
I scored a massive roast for an wicked price today. It was waaay too big for just my husband & I so before I froze it I cut it into a few steaks & baggies of strips for stir-frys or fajitas.

My dirty little secret is that I ate my steak raw, I love raw beef. My husband is disgusted & my mother is convinced that I'll get sick from raw meat. I've been sick many times from stuff I ate but I've had hundreds of raw steaks over the last 10 years & I've never been sick from one. I wouldn't even consider eating raw or undercooked pork or chicken but raw beef is like heaven on my tongue. My father always liked his beef rare so maybe that's how I discovered my taste for it. I used to just throw my steaks on the grill long enough for them to brown lightly on the outside. From there I went to only warming them & now I eat em straight from the fridge! Yum!

I don't see anything wrong with it, I'm a huge sushi fan & I live for oysters so it's only natural that I'd like my beef raw too. I've heard that in fancy restaurants they serve beef ground as steak tartar but I've never had it...hubby & I avoid restos with white tableloths...don't get me wrong, we don't eat at Swiss Chalet either...well we kinda do sometimes but it's never an "occasion" just a dinner.

So the next time you're having beef for dinner cut off a little piece & give it a try, you'll love it!

So many projects, so much lazy...

2009-03-03T18:25:00.003-05:00

I'm such a friggen procrastinator. Hubby is trying to dig out a niche in the basement to set up his Guitar Hero games amongst my dozens of half completed projects. We bought new couches & we kept our old one so he's been planning on making our sometimes-soggy basement a boys hideaway now that he has something to sit on down there. The only problem is there's no room to move. We've donated & thrown away just about everything we can but we're still buried in crap. We hit Ikea last week & I picked up a bunch of storage boxes so hopefully I'll be able to clear up some space for the poor guy.

I fancy myself a bit of a handywoman but I'm easily distracted when a new, more exciting project comes along. Now I have to concentrate on stripping down & painting an old dresser & making room for it in the crazy room...what will eventually be my new workspace. The clutter in this house is so overwhelming when I start tidying I have mini panic attacks & have trouble breathing. It really is that bad. If I was cleverer I'd post a pic or two because you can't begin to understand until you've seen it. I'm painting in the kitchen because the basement is so dusty & that creates a whole new set of clutter problems.

sigh, it's time to get back to work.

Oh & todays mail brought me a $50 gift card, a novel & a coupon for a free salad...not too shabby!

I dream of my mailman...

2009-03-03T01:42:00.004-05:00

OK, I actually hate my mailman but I do dream of my mail! Every day is like christmas at my house! I'm a contester so I never know what's going to show up on my doorstep. I've won trips, tickets, giftcards, countless cd's & dvd's & tons of other randomnessess. I'm sure people think I waste too much time entering contests but when I win something fantastic I can see the interest glimmer in their eyes.

I'm a night-owl, I hate mornings & I always have. Even when I was a kid I had a hard time getting out of bed, even on christmas morn I wouldn't wake up till 10-11. I'm an only child, I didn't have to worry about anyone else opening my prezzies before I got downstairs. I usually do my contest entering between 12 & 4am, I don't enter during the day unless I'm bored senseless. I sit in the livingroom with my lappy & I watch House & the Sopranos while I'm online, I have an amazingly short attention span so this helps me to hold interest in what I'm doing.

My husband gets annoyed when I'm on the computer. He's jealous of the time I spend with lappy but he spends as much time watching TV as I spend online & boy does he ever watch shit! He watches crap that a teenage girl would be ashamed to admit to watching. Nothing as pathetic as soap operas but stuff like Top Dance Crew & American Idol, it's quite sad really.

I've been contesting for about five years now & I've discovered that Tuesdays & the beginning of a new month are the best times for wins, for me anyway. Today is both a Tuesday & early in March so I'm hoping for a surprise or two when I climb out of bed this afternoon!

Wish me luck!

Too much time on my hands...

2009-03-02T16:52:00.007-05:00

So I think I'm a housewife now...

I truly don't want to be unemployed but it's starting to look that way since I haven't worked since Dec28. In trying to keep my husband happy I've done more dishes in the last two months than I have in the last 10 years...I don't do dishes.
I'm sure I may still have one last chance to stay at my company so I'm not looking for a new job yet. I am however contemplating going back to college...again, still in the dental field but not something where I'll be required to crawl around in someones smelly mouth. That didn't work out very well last time...

So since I've been "not-working" I've had plenty of time to create new projects for my husband & myself. Said husband is not impressed with me handing him new jobs but I'm afraid that if I get hold of the skil-saw & a long enough extension cord I'll be able to do some serious damage. Please don't get me wrong, I've been using power tools since I was a child (correctly & safely!) but I don't think powerful electrical appliances with multiple sharp metal teeth are good for me to be playing with in my current mental state. So that being said I'll be sticking to baking, painting & projects including other soft non-deadly objects. I bought a book on upholstery but alas I have nothing that needs upolstering...I guess I shoulda thought of that before I parted ways with my $40...

Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to keep you all entertained with my stories of hatred, angst & re-decorating.

Well, here goes nothing...

2009-03-01T23:47:00.001-05:00

I can't think of anything fantastic to write as my very first blog entry so I'm gonna tell a little story about me as a child that my family was discussing this afternoon.
I was in kindergarten & for some unknown reason I refused to take my coat off one morning. The school principal just happened to be visiting our classroom & my teacher explained what was going on. He came over to me & asked me to take my coat off.
After school I told my mom about my day & that the principal had to come to get me to take my coat off. I said "oh mommy, I was so scared I thought my heart was going to stop" my mom said "well, did you take it off?"
...my answer was no.

I was a stubborn bitch even as a child.

This should be fun.