allergy

I am not feeling any better and am wondering if this cold may be allergy related. I would expect a cold to improve more quickly than I am. I think I am worse today than yesterday :(

I went shopping at Loblaws first thing in the morning. It was nice and quiet just like I like when I shop.

Then I ran some laundry and did some work releasing marks. The laundry at the top of the stairs seemingly disappeared while I was not looking. The 9 year old claims to know nothing. While I would *like* to think it got up and laundered itself I suspect this laundry has fallen prey to other forces.

Rustle was good. Hard to sing with a sore throat. We all missed Greg and Cathy and their singing too.

I did my taxes and got James signed up for a summer camp. I'm trying to do the "quiet" tasks on my list ahead of other ones.

I find this video disturbing. In the grand scheme of everything that happened in the Michael R. case it doesn't have the disturbing content. The video was taken in a detention center a few days after the murder and shows Michael and Terri acting happy together. After the nastiness that happened only a few days before, can they really be happy? Are they acting? Is this all for show? Terri still looks pretty enamored with Michael. I am just trying to put together how someone can hurt a little girl so bad and still be ok afterward.

caged

Well, I thought I would be doing better by now, but I am not yet. I have so much to get done but try to take it a little easy at least. I finished reading "room". It reminded me of a friend. I thought the aspect of closure was interesting. Closure comes in many forms and the book reminded me of its importance.

snuffy

Weell, my cough is a lot looser now. I'm maybe at 80%. Still not feeling 100%. There is some super mutated grass on my lawn. I whacked it all down with a whippersnipper 2 weeks ago. But within days of my completing the task- even before my arms had recovered from the soreness it has grown back as high as before. I think the soil overtop it covers a pipe they must have dug up at some point after the original lawn was put down and then they re-sodded it with this super seed. I am not impressed with super seed as I am going to have to crack out the whippersnipper this weekend again. Hopefully, it get s warmer. I am still wearing all my winter gear out and it is the end of April. I am working on wrapping up grades in my courses. Some are going better than others :) I had a crazy busy day and I'm not quite sure why. I ran an exam today and I hauled my entire empire of papers from my desk into the exam room and sorted it while she wrote. This is a big step to sorting out my life!

shake this thing

I am still struggling to shake the sickness. I have a full day tomorrow including a practice run for a speech I have to give. With not much of a voice this is going to be fun. Speaking of fun, my grandmother turned 95!!! Way to go Omi!! The Blogger look is all new for the posting- will take a little bit of time to get used to this upgrade. I don't think the front end of the blog looks any different, but the back end does!

did i mention snow?

Yep, woke up to snow.
Still wearing the winter coat.
Still with a bit of a chest infection.
But better than yesterday, so this is good.

I finished reading a book Kim gave me. It was called "Harbinger" by Jonathan Cahn. It was a novel but the topics it covered were actually quite factual. It was looking at the effects of 9/11. One thing that I had never connected because I don't follow much to do with the American economy was that the economic collapse in 2008 was connected to 9/11. It does make sense in retrospect. After 9/11 the interest rates were kept way down to promote American spending - I presume so that doom and gloom didn't overtake the american public and cause them not to buy things out of the fear that followed 9/11. However, because of these low rates, that led to many people buying things they really couldn't afford which led to the the collapse of Fannie May and Freddie Mac and the tanking of the real estate and the economy, etc. The novel itself is quite gripping and a very interesting read. After finishing it, I totally want to visit NYC!

I started reading a book that my mother lent me called "Room" by Emma Donoghue. Looks like a gripper too- but I'm not yet through the first chapter. I'll let you know how it goes!

snow

Lovely prediction of snow coming :(
I am feeling less cloudy in the head. My chest is still pretty congested though. That's not fun.

In one of James' TV shows the characters in the town take a week off TV. I asked James how he would do for a week without TV. He said not well. I mentioned that there were kids in the world who didn't have TVs. He responded that he was glad he lived in Canada. AND if Canada faced an economic crisis they could sell all the gold medals they won and everything would be ok. Problem solving with 9 year olds!

Going to try to look at taxes now!

ups and downs

well the day was really difficult. my head was very cloudy. normally I get worse at night but I seem to be doing better now that it is night. I just had a slice of pizza (very late). I hadn't been hungry all day. Now I have cracked out the ginger beer. This stuff has enough potent punch that I can feel my sinus clearing. Pretty intense stuff. Hoping for a good night tonight!

This video about the Ugg boot vaccine is hilarious!

spam at 1am

last night turned out to be not so good as I got a spam phone call at 1am. then i couldn't get back to sleep until 3:30am. I called telus to see if I could get the number blocked but apparently I can't.

My cough is breaking up a bit now, which I assume is ultimately good but feels pretty bad right now :(

Anyway the number was 613 217 1599. I'll try calling them from work so they can't trace my number and try to find out who they are. If you feel like calling them too to find out why they called me at 1am, feel free!

as night falls

As the evening rolled in, my cough has gotten worse. But nights are often worse than days when you are sick. Hoping for a good sleep tonight!

A couple of odd stories that I read today:
Woman’s 10 litre-a-day Coca-Cola habit likely contributed to death, say doctors
Did noone think that a woman with 8 children who drinks 10 litres of Coke, smokes 30 cigarettes a day and rarely eats might need some help?

Thank goodness for unbreakable panes.

better night

Last night was much better than the one before. I slept in solid bits from 10-3:30 and 3:30-5:30 where the night before I had a hard time sleeping at allhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif.
My head is less cloudy now. I still have a cough and a leaky nose but I think I'm past the worst.

I got a bit of work done from home but I tried to take it easy. I watched the latest episode of 48 hours online. About how people may not be what they appear to be. Kind of like in the Tori trial. How Michael R. could juggle that many women and none of them know?

I learned 10 practical jokes to pull.

I am hoping taking it easy will put me back on my feet tomorrow. I have an exam to run.

no better

I had some important meetings this morning that I had to go in for. THere were points when I thought I wouldn't make it in. But I did, did the meetings and left. Rested some more. Feeling a bit better now. Going to have a tea, maybe do some dishes and head to bed.

not well

i have a cold and fever- had to go home from work early.
it wasn't a good day anyway. one of our websites took down an extensive network of websites.
hoping a good sleep helps.

presentations

Today was tiring but good. I got this dress from Sears online and it is great- I thought it would be good to wear to the day of special presentations by the first year class. The day was a very interesting experience having gone through the process with the second year class just a few weeks ago.

The weather had turned quite chilly on the way home and I wished for my scarf and winter coat. Now I've got a bit of a sore throat. Hoping it won't last!

foggy

On waking this morning it was foggy. I guess I thought as the morning started it would wear off quickly but it didn't. It was still very foggy when I walked to Church.
I wrote here about the stew last night in order to remind myself, but I still forgot until I was about to leave so I had to quickly put it in. I was planning on making chick pea stew but when I opened the can I saw I had grabbed a can of white kidney beans instead of chick peas, so I made white kidney bean stew instead. This is what is pictured above except you can't really see the kidney beans I think they were buried.
I also baked my first loaf of bread in the new house and it also turned out quite well.

My arms did end up being quite sore from the whippersnipper as I predicted but I worked through it and got the house vacuumed and lots of dishes washed. Still have to clean the bathrooms though!

I am impressed that I made it to Church on time as I only left the house at 11am because my timing was off. I blame the fog. In theory it might start at 11 but more often 11:30 or 11:45. We're pretty relaxed with such things as "start time".

The next couple of days might be a blur but Wednesday should be better!

angrypants in the neighbourhood

My late bulbs are starting to sprout:

Neighbour's tree(?) in bloom:

My lonely daffodil:

The day turned out to be quite nice so I did as much as I could outside. I hung laundry, mowed, raked, whippersnipped + pulled weeds. The yard looks much better! But I may be sore tomorrow. I forgot how heavy the whippersnipper is. I looked quite amusing after- head to toe covered in grass clippings.

While I was working in the front, I noticed Mr. Angrypants walking down Park st. He was yelling and angry. It took me a bit to figure out that he was actually yelling at a girl. She was walking a number of paces behind him and if he hadn't been yelling at her, you wouldn't have guessed that they were together. At the point where I could hear what he was saying- he was screaming at her to "Go home". And I was thinking that she should go home, pack her packs and never see his mug again. But no, she continued following him. I hope she gets some self respect and leaves soon- it's really not worth staying girl.

I'm planning a chickpea stew in the slow cooker for tomorrow. Have to remember to make it first thing in the morning as it takes all day to get everything cooked and soft enough.

shopping

James wanted to go shopping with me this morning, which was nice. Not efficient but nice!
He had done a module in Health class on reading labels on food so he read all the labels that we could find. He declared cheezies were "disgusting" (from the label). We ran into Dick and Judith there and I tried to explain what James was doing and then he launched into his NEW subject in Health which apparently is drugs. If I don't embarrass myself at the supermarket I have a child to do it for me!
James did all the scanning of the groceries at the end as well.
We were still back within an hour so James was pleased with our efficiency.
James is now playing Wii and I am going to tackle cleaning the house.
It feels weird to be home when exams are running.

warming

there was frost on the roof when I got up this morning so I wore my winter coat. I still hung laundry as it was predicted to be sunny. It did turn out to be nice at the end. I looks like things will warm up a bit next week. Maybe I can stop wearing the winter coat soon? Maybe?

I actually didn't witness an accident yesterday. There was a car traveling north on Regent st. at a high rate of speed and there was a stop sign but they didn't seem to be slowing down at all so I didn't enter the intersection but I was worried for some other people who had already started crossing, but she hit the brakes right at the last second and stopped behind the line. No worries. Maybe I'm just paranoid after the accident.

I did catch up on a lot of work today so things are looking good going into next week. Gillian starts next week which will be great. The first couple of days will be tied up with the first year presentations.

I still have lots of email to plow through but at least have cleaned up the last few weeks.

I'm pretty wiped so I'm aiming to go to bed early. Hope James cooperates!

gym!

me: what did you do at school today?
james: gym! we played soccer with pool noodles (+another game I did not understand)
me: did you do anything other than gym?
james: no
me: so you had a full day of gym?
james: no
me: so what did you learn today?
james: lots of stuff in gym!
my child likes gym class!

In other news when I went to the SDM looking for a paper my dad told me about I saw a guy being taken out in cuffs. The policeman was marching him along but the cuffed guy was going in various directions. It was interesting to compare the affect. One was focused and determined and one was not! He was not actively trying to get away, just not being terribly cooperative. He may actually have been too clouded by other substances to actually be clear as to what was going on.

One of my blog acquaintances witnessed (heard) a murder of a young girl to domestic violence. A lot of anger in the world.

glowing face

James looks flushed because he just finished playing soccer. I look flushed for no reason as the burn has not faded enough yet. I tried hiding in my cubicle for as long as I could during the day. I tried to run the copycheck for a course but ran into a few obstacles involving zip files.
I still have 60 emails to reply to.
In the afternoon I went over to the registrar to help them run reports. Things were a bit crazy as it was just before the exams started. They still took the time to laugh at my burn though.
Tomorrow I need to do some more copycheck runs and attempt to get through some email. The afternoon is filled in my calender.
I don't have much hope of making it through the email :(

on the road again

The three musketeers

Goodbye Oma and Grand-dad

Favorite chocolate

We pretty much wore out Oma and Grand-dad today. Grand-dad and I went shopping. Then we had a little lunch. Then we took a really loooong walk down by the water. Then we had a super dinner of chicken tikka masala (if I do say so myself). Then they went away :( Then Kim arrived to sleep in James' bunk bed until she started work at midnight. I tried to tackle some work but the emails kept pouring in so I got some work done but did not get ahead.

Hot face

My face is looking better than yesterday but still red. I put aloe vera on it but had an allergic reaction. I looked on the pot and found that aloe is the last ingredient! I think one of the other chemicals or the "fragrance" had some sort of reaction with me. So that may be contributing to additional redness, not bringing it down. I've stopped using it- hopefully tomorrow will be even better so I'm not too silly looking at work.

Noone laughed at me today in Church. But I think Sarah wanted to :)

My parents arrived and went to the park with James and I, then took us out to a lovely dinner at the grizzly. I had the spinach salad which was scrumptious!
My mother found chocolate with butterscotch bits in the Dutch store in St. C. which is amazing for me as that is my favorite kind!

toasty

well, the afternoon didn't quite go as I had planned. I thought James would play from 12:30-1:30. He hadn't even had lunch when we left as he had a late breakfast.
At 2:30 I realized the error of my planning as he was eating the chips the other kids had brought and I was feeling a sunburn creeping in. I sat in the sun because it was too cold to be in the shade. Who gets a sunburn in a winter coat?
We were out until 5:30.
I did run home at one point and put James' lunch together so he wouldn't have only chips...
I look a little toasty now but have slathered on Aloe cream in hopes that I will look slightly less toasty tomorrow.

My mother called to say they are in Couburg.
James has made a Welcome sign for them and is quite excited.

I made a reservation for the Grizzly for tomorrow and had a very funny conversation with the girl on the line.
I asked if they were open tomorrow. Because it is like Easter Sunday and lots of things are closed
She said yes.
I asked if I could make a reservation.
She was unsure.
She said she could take my name and number and call me back.
Then she asked when I was looking to reserve.
I told her 5 pm. She breathed a sigh of relief and assured me that 5pm was no problem at ALL.
Apparently they are quite full for Sunday Brunch but not for the evening. The brunch is the popular one! Glad we aren't going then!

Turkeys

Yesterday, I worked in the morning to get a stack of grades in. In the afternoon I went with Kim to her Church. In the evening I took James out biking. This is now good jogging practice for me!

This morning I went to Loblaws and was back before James woke up at 8am. Loblaws was already quite busy. They had one entire freezer bay filled with turkeys. I came home, did the dishes then went to hang out the laundry. It's still pretty chilly but it's sunny and windy so the laundry should dry ok. I could smell turkeys cooking while I hung the laundry out.

I have to take James to Gibson park at 12:30 to play baseball and I wanted to get some work on the house done as my parents are coming tomorrow, so I should get to it!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

what a difference a week makes

James is now biking like a pro! And is very excited about my parents coming to visit on Sunday!

Last day of classes

It was a busy week with end of year presentation. Heaps of presentations later, I am still in one piece.
Lots of paperwork to wrap up though!
I also hired 55 new TAs for next year. Looking forward to getting in gear for that.
We've hired a replacement for my second year job and she'll be starting in about a week.
I have Monday off as my parents are coming up Sunday and Monday!
James is very excited to show off his new biking skills!
It would make me happier if it were a bit warmer out but the weather is not too bad so I don't have too many complaints except it is not really warm enough to hang clothes outside.
The university area was pretty quiet at the end of work today, though after the office had closed the alarm went off in the Dean's office with the sounds of much laughter so I think there may have been a prank there.
The students have gone home to have some nice meals before exams start!

short week

I generally am not keen on short weeks as it tends to be that you need to do 5 days of work in 4 days.
I am setting my standards pretty low- hoping just to get through the presentations.
There are 3 of them in quick succession tomorrow.
One 2:30-4:30
One 3:30-5:30
One 4-6
You can see that I tend to need to be in a few places at one as there are a number of overlapping times.

Then there are 2 on Wednesday.

I am sorry for traumatizing Marlene with the previous post!
I had to post a new one for her today so she doesn't land on the spider too often.

making popcorn

This is the swedish chef making popcorn.click link

This is some of beakers best work.click link

75 wrapped

So yesterday I went to a 75th birthday party. It was not too bad. I'm not terribly great with parties but I kept company with a charming almost 92 year old named Alice. Apparently she lives with Garry's parents most of the time but travels to see her other children frequently. She came with Marilyn to the party. They had some excellent black forest cake and everyone there was nice and interesting so thumbs up for the party!

An update on the plant bulbs that I planted last Sunday: The one Sam gave out was fug up and eaten by squirrels pretty much within the first 2 days. There may be a couple of little sprouts pushing through. Hopefully, the rain that came today will help nourish them a bit. (See- Marlene- I specified plant bulbs!)

This morning at Rustle was good except Peggy lost another brother this week. 2 brothers in 2 weeks. That is hard.

I have bathrooms to clean, dishes to wash and laundry to do this evening. Not sure where to start!

April Fool

For an April Fool on James I am pretending we are each Tyrannosaurus Rex. We just played a game of T-Rex catch, which was rather funny as we couldn't extend our arms to either catch or pick up.
James sleeps like a burrito:

My back garden this morning. What are the little red sprouts going to become?