New Obsession

Bengal Spice Tea by Celestial Seasonings. Jan 31 POD.

This tea is spiced perfectly, and for some strange reason, tastes sweet although it contains nary a bit of sugar or any sugar-like chemical.

I. LOVE. IT.

Which means of course, that at any moment, it will be discontinued. Lipton Raspberry Mandarin and Celestial Seasonings Vanilla Maple (not the decaf version), I am looking at you BOTH.

Catch Up, Yet Again

My oh my, where does the time go?

In my own defense, I have been rather busy - working, wedding planning (OMG - about time!), and helping my mom and stepdad with their move to the house from the condo.

It has been a tough move for them (she's 74, he's 80) but they are settled in now and hopefully can rest a bit. My painting clothes came home on the 30th (POD) which means the kitchen, computer room and bathroom are DONE! You may not be able to see from the photo, but we painted the kitchen and bath a lovely creamy shade (dripping down the B in CIBC) called "Fuzzy Mitten".

Remind me someday to show you the pic of the peeling paint in my own bathroom at home. Sigh.

Determined...

...To move forward despite having little energy to do so. That's my new mantra! Along with "fake it till ya make it". Ha!

Went to the doc this week and still don't have a diagnosis. My TSH levels dropped back down to a more normalish range, though apparently you can still feel crappy at 3.35 but the doc can't do anything about it till you're over 5.0 (my previous test was 4.91).

On the one hand, I am happy that maybe I don't have a thyroid problem.....on the other hand...well, then what is my problem?

What's a gal to do? Well, her nails and to start watching Seasons 1 and 2 of House (lent to me by a colleague), photo for Jan 27.

What else can I do? Eat healthy! Jan 28 - Slow Cooker Pork with Beans and Greens. JD gave it a 10/10! I liked it too, but not quite that much. Recipe from SparkPeople.com.

Doc has now signed me up for a sleep clinic as she wants to rule out sleep apnea. JD says I definitely do not have sleep apnea, though I am snoring a lot (blush!), he says. Sleeping in a strange place, hooked up to a lot of wires and people watching/videoing you sleeping....hmmm, not something I'd ever consider doing but....my dad had sleep apnea. I remember listening to him snore when I was a kid, and then he'd stop and I'd wait and wait and want to run in the room and scream "Start breathing again, dammit!" (I swore a lot back then).

Heck, he had even had awake-apnea. Dad smoked like a chimney up until the last few years of his life and I remember a particular coughing fit of his at our cottage in which he actually passed out from lack of oxygen! When he came to, he denied that he passed out but it was pretty obvious. Men! Cough, cough, cough, cough, topple over, lay there, open eyes, look dazed, get up, cough some more. Thankfully he was on the floor already fixing something by the wood stove when he passed out so he didn't have far to fall.

What else can I do to make myself feel better? Well, despite my lethargy (0r maybe because of it) I should be forcing myself to move more. So behold my new pedometer (Jan 29th photo). It arrived today from Well.ca

I find wearing a pedometer very motivating. Something about seeing those numbers and wanting to see what it takes to make more of them! DATA! Give me DATA! And it does. It even distinguishes between basic wandering around and AEROBIC STEPS. What be AEROBIC STEPS? I guess I'll be finding out!

Excitement! Mystery! Suspense! Stay tuned.

You know I am self-medicating because of how lousy I feel. That's right, after about 15-20 years off of the stuff, I am back to drinking coffee again. A half cup in the a.m. with lots of milk seems to clear up the brain fog a wee bit. Not even close to the gallons of straight black Columbian I used to enjoy, but I am on the slippery slope, yessir.

I mentioned this to my doc, thinking it would alarm her but NO. She told me "We docs drink coffee to stay alert - it's a stimulant you know. I drink about 2 cups a day myself...so you go girl! Enjoy your coffee." Huh? Coffee not bad? Especially for my gastric reflux?

What next?!? If I tell her I am uptight from too much coffee is she going to suggest a ciggie and a cocktail, to take the edge off? "Yes Mizz D, we docs often get liquored up and smoke like fiends - it helps after a long hard day of doctoring people like yourself."

Hmmm, I just don't know how I feel about coffee. On the one hand, I like to think clearly (and clearly, who doesn't?), on the other....I have an addictive personality so I am a bit concerned that my "lil' helper" could turn into a big ol' monkey on my back (again) before I know it. I even feel guilty having caffeinated tea more than once in a wee while. Hmmm.

'Course, if I lost some weight, my gastric reflux might disappear and IF I had sleep apnea, that might disappear, and if I exercised more I MIGHT just feel a whole lot better and fitter and maybe my brain would clear up on its own?

So that leaves me where I started with this blog. Determined to take better care of myself, since medicine doesn't have any answers for me at this moment.

Triptych or Troika - you pick

Third (and final ) installation, as I get caught up in my blogging and picture taking.

January 22nd photo: Sun going down behind me. I looked up from the parking lot of our building to see the church on the hill next door. It looked especially pretty and I was especially happy because here it was 5:30 at night and still light out! Yay!!! Spring is coming....in another couple of months....but still...progress. Yay Mother Nature....way to spin the planet closer to longer days and better weather!

January 23rd: spied these arrangements in the cooler of our tenant (and florist). White orchids and hydrangeas! Looks like fireworks exploding in flower form. I love it. Something like this for our wedding would be wonderful. Hope the florist doesn't tell me this is for a funeral. Doesn't look very funereal to me? Does it to you?

January 24th photo: this is what my dog looks like when she knows she is going for a walk. Note the flying ears. Flying because she is bouncing up and down on full alert and joyousness mode.

This is why people own dogs. They are the embodiment of the word JOY.

Oh yeah, plus loyal and always happy to see you, no matter how bad of a day it has been (for you or them). Why can't we all be more like dogs?

The newly shorn Lucy must now wear her coat when outside (according to me, not her). This pic is a stand-in for January 25. I actually took it last winter. For some reason I did not take a picture yesterday....the memory....ah, she is pretty bad these days.

I am finally feeling a bit better, after last week's 24 hours from Hell, and the resulting days from the outskirts of Hell. I am going back to the doc this week (after yet more blood work) to press for something to be done to restore me to my old self. I haven't felt this bad since I was severely anemic. I doubt I am anemic, though the doc was quick to point out that my iron levels were normal alright....LOW normal. Still, anemia or thyroid....who cares?! Just fix me.

And finally: today's photo.

This book arrived in the mail for me today!

I am a FAN of this woman's work. I already have two of her other books: Time Management from the Inside Out and Never Check Your Email in the Morning. Sometimes I wonder if I should read less about organizing and actually do some organizing instead. But then I get distracted and the feeling passes....tee hee.

Part Deux

January 16th photo:

More Glee. Finished watching entire first season. Want more. Now.

Being under the weather is a perfect time to catch up on TV, doncha think?

Well, lest you think I was a total couch spud on Saturday, I must tell you that I also (also, stupidly...see January 15th for more superhuman stupidity) walked my dog to the groomer and back. The groomer is a 1.5 hour walk from my house, along the river trail. So that was 3 hours walking total, plus 1.5 hours waiting for the dog to be groomed. Not something to be done when recovering from the total body...er...cleanse...I had just experienced two days prior. While waiting for milady, I headed up the street to a local cafe, read the paper and tried to eat some breakfast. I pocketed the bacon for Lucy - her treat for enduring the indignity of the grooming process. Once we got back to the house, both of us retreated to the couch. She didn't get up again until it was dark. Methought I had finally wore her out.

January 17th: the new and much improved Miss Lucy.

Jan 18th photo: My mom and stepdad bought a house and are in the process of moving from their condo. On Sunday, JD and I went over to help them at the new place and my mom gave me this little porcelain statue that had belonged to my dad's mom. People tend to want to give you stuff when they are moving, I have found. Packing up/unpacking your stuff tends to bring forth the following exclamations: Why do we have all this stuff? And: Here, do you want it? Yes, actually, I do.

Nothing special about it - your basic dollar store trinket - but my Oma loved it and I have very few things from her except memories, so it is precious to me because it was precious to her.

January 19th photo of a box on a shelf in my bedroom. It also says: Live and Love on the other sides. Cannot for the life of me remember why I wanted to take this picture. I do know I was still feeling rotten, and perhaps I needed a LAUGH!

January 20th photo: Organizing. Remember that resolution? Hmmm. Tonight I took a few moments to take all my makeup brushes from their various homes and put them all in this beautiful Queen mug. I loved this mug from the moment I saw it (black and pink and pretty writing, oh my!) but I wouldn't buy so a friend bought it for me. I didn't want to take it to work lest my staff and co-workers took offense (it's OK to be boss, but QUEEN??? Really! Some people....) so it now lives in my bathroom. Proudly proclaiming my status as the Queen of my domicile.

That's enough for this post. More soon.

Oh dear, where has the time gone?

Eleven days since I posted last!

Well, since then I went away on business, got terribly sick, recovered slo-o-o-w-ly, tried to get back to normal, and tried also to get caught up.

I think I might have to make multiple postings to get all the daily pix in nicely, but let's see how we make out, shall we?

First up: January 11th photo. Trying out my new contraption for changing skeins of yarn into nice balls of yarn. Yarn is Dream in Colour Smooshy Sock Yarn with real silver shot through it. Since I don't have a yarn swift to coordinate with my ball winder, I have looped the skein around a kitchen chair. Tedious, but it works! This yarn is going to be knit into a cowl, eventually.

Jan 12th photo: my room at the Royal York, where I was staying while away on business. Ahhhhh, so calm, peaceful and tidy....like my house used to be (and will be again someday, probably when I am retired...LOL). The colour scheme at this (and many other hotels) is classic red, green and gold. This is along the lines of the colours I am thinking of, for when JD and I make over the apartment at our historic property into our marital home, instead of what it is now: a tired looking bachelor pad.

January 13th photo: After the business meeting was over, JD and I decided to take a mini-holiday and spend the rest of the day and the next in Niagara Falls.

Some of the holiday lighting displays were still operating and I tried capture them sans tripod. A little blurry, but hey... you get the idea. Little did I know that I would end up in the early morning hours of the next day sick as the proverbial dog, not sure which end to hang over the toilet. At first I thought it was food poisioning (from the Royal York, really???) but later I read in the local newspaper about a mysterious 24 hour stomach bug that is threatening to close down the hospital to visitors....I suspect that is what I got hit with.

Jan 14th photo: After some debate as to whether I was even well enough to handle the 2 hour car ride home to the Village, I decided I just had to get home. Did not want to pay to spend another night being sick in our hotel, however cheap and off-season it was. On the way home, we stopped at Dee's General Store in Valens so I could stagger in for her unbelievable butter tarts. Peanut butter butter tarts are my absolute favourite of hers. Still, it was 2 more days before I could do more than just look at one, and luckily there was still one left for me at that time! Stupidly, I went back to work on the 15th, instead of staying home for some badly needed recuperation time.

January 15th photo: Once I dragged my sorry butt back home from work, I flopped onto the couch and started watching the first season of Glee on dvd. What a cool show.

I think I'll stop here and continue updating the blog with another posting: Part Deux.

Did the Christmas Spirit Fairy Finally Fly Up My Nose?

It seems exceedingly strange for me to finally get "into" Christmas 2 weeks after the fact but heck, better late than never.

The past, oh, 10-15 years or so, have been a struggle for me with respect to the holidays. The kids growing up, the death of my father, the implosion of my first marriage, the working towards re-establishing/discovering myself, have all contributed to me swinging from being a total Christmas freakazoid to being someone who grimly endures the holidays as a sort of test of will and endurance. Yeah, made it through another one...whew...now give me my medal.

That sort of thing. Not a bah-humbug really, but more like a little kid with her nose pressed up to the glass, observing the holiday merriment going on, but with no idea of how to become part of that again, other than just faking it for everyone else's sake.

This year was especially bad as I was completely bogged down at work, and as well I felt helpless watching my daughter's heartbreak at the very cruel ending of her longterm relationship with a most unsuitable boyfriend. (Inside I was cheering the fact that Mr. Rectal Orifice could no longer play head games on her and verbally abuse her, but I was also saddened to hear that she seemed to recreating the mistakes of her mother as I found out more about what her relationship with this person was really like.)

But now that Christmas is actually over, and the frenetic pace of it is a distant memory, I find myself somewhat restored and looking forward to creating new traditions with JD when next year is our first Christmas as a man and wife.

Behold our 2009 tree (Jan 9th Photo of the Day), containing our one tradition (so far) of collecting a Swarovski crystal ornament for every year we've been together. So far there are 7 hanging on the tree.

This past Christmas we received a beautiful ceramic snowflake ornament from JD's cousin and her husband to add to the tree as well: Tidings of Comfort and Joy indeed! (Jan 8th POD)

The story of the Swarovski ornament begins on Boxing Day 2002, when JD took me to Birks to pick out a pair of earrings to replace the ones he wrapped up for me for Christmas (diamond clusters that were just too heavy and painful to wear). As we were exiting the store with my perfect little quarter carat diamond studs, we noticed a table full of dark blue triangular shaped boxes, marked half-off. Being a lover of all things sparkly as well as 50% off sales, I had to stop and check it out. JD didn't hesitate one bit, picked up a box and headed back to the salesgirl to ring up another purchase....and the Swarovski tradition was born. (And, though Birks no longer carries the ornaments, we have been able to source them elsewhere, and many thanks to Sam's Club and now Costco for ensuring we have never paid full price for our yearly indulgence so far.)