I'm back, sort of :)

Sorry about that... (to the two or three people who read this blog). Things got a bit crazy there for a while. My job was disappearing, things at the store were nutty (I've lost a few more coworkers I'm quite fond of, and I'm not happy about it). Things with the kids were also nutty, and there was some travel involved. Most of my free time dried up entirely.

My job ended last Tuesday (May 22nd). I was drifting in the wind again, but a mere two days later, I signed a contract for a PERMANENT JOB (I've never had one of those before... this could be neat!). I started my job this Tuesday (May 28) so all in all, I was unemployed for a week :) I can deal with that.

Arrive at work on Tuesday to be given a remote to our private, gated parking lot and to be given the 10 cent tour. We have a full kitchen (minus dishwasher, but meh...), a basement (yeahhhh.... bit creepy? But I can live with it... I don't work down there), a gorgeous conference room downstairs, and private offices upstairs. My office? My very own office? It has two windows, two filing cabinets and a DOOR, dudes! I have an actual office for the first time ever! Yesterday being my first day, they gave me alarm codes and keys and I closed up by myself. It was a bit of a shocker. I feel like a grownup!

I also work a few short blocks from the Parkdale Market. Heh... this could be dangerous (oh, and right across the street from Wabi Sabi - one of the cutest little LYS you'll ever find).

School is still out, and the protests are getting out of hand. Several nights now, the students have begun marching down St. Joseph Street in Hull (which is about 50 feet from my front door), banging on pots, using noisemakers and vuvuzelas and yelling and chanting at the top of their lungs. At 11:45pm. With police escorts. Am I happy about this? No I'm not. It's getting harder and harder to get any sleep at all before midnight, and it's pissing me off. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to class, but I'm hoping it's soon. I'm not willing to lose more than the semester that's already been wasted on this nonsense.

Plants are, remarkably, still alive. I haven't transplanted any of the 2nd generation of seedlings yet. All the previous ones are dead and gone. I also don't have any tomato plants, but I'm seriously thinking of giving up on the garden idea for this year. I just do NOT have the space for this, and it's annoying me to no end. The second I bring a plant indoors, Zachary's cat will either eat it, poop in it, or dig it up, and I'm fed up.

The house cleaning is going much slower than I would like. I think the major problem thus far has been the lack of a vacuum cleaner, and the over-abundance of laundry. The vacuum cleaner problem has been solved (thanks, Steve! - Rob, don't forget to give him the money if you haven't already!), so now we just need to get the laundry monsters under control. Tonight we'll be moving the big freezer ... um.... I'm not sure where. It may end up in the back room, but I'll have to see what I can manage. And then we'll be cleaning and vacuuming that area and hopefully the livingroom too. UGH.

But first, a big fat sorry about my absence for the last three weeks. I kept meaning to post, but I realized that I had nothing positive to post about (with the exception of the job) and I didn't want to just come on here to whine and rant. Tomorrow's entry will be regarding the whole weight loss thing and how that sank like a lead balloon (and why), and now that I'm employed again, there will be no reason why I can't renew the gym membership! (and I'm looking at having the treadmill cleaned. I don't know if that's a thing or not, but I want to find out!)

Optimism and accomplishments...

This week has been a little bit better than previous ones. The back room is clean (barring vacuuming, which I can't do, because my vacuum is kaput). The kitchen is nearly clean (the floor is done, most of the dishes are clean and put away, I just need to buy a paint mask to sweep the ceiling and walls and then scrub all the surfaces). The livingroom requires a bit more work. The front hall is clean. I've gotten rid of a stupid amount of outgrown and/or damaged clothing, books and other stuff I just don't need to hang on to. Things are coming together! And since I'm off this weekend, maybe I'll take the opportunity to walk up to the Tulip Festival with the kids :)

My knitting, on the other hand, has me frothing at the mouth. I was watching a movie, working away on the dishcloth blanket, when the cable of my circular needle popped off. ARGH. This happens to me on a frighteningly regular basis. To the point where I never want to see a circular needle EVER AGAIN. I'm done. I refuse to buy yet another $10 piece of equipment that's going to break at the worst possible moment, so I've given up on the dishcloth blanket and I'm giving the intended recipient a Baby Surprise Jacket I had lying around instead. It's beyond cute, so I'm not concerned about that. I'm just seriously peeved about the circ.

I've decided to restart the blanket as a ten-stitch. Ten-stitch blankets don't require circular needles, because the most you'll ever have on the needle is - go on, guess. That's right - TEN STITCHES. I can handle that. And the ten-stitch will be gifted to yet another expectant mom. Nearly done the granny square lapghan though, so at least there's been progress there :)

The sprouts are doing okay, but I'm not tempting fate by photographing them. The little bastards would just take advantage of the situation to all go and die on me. I'm not sure what I'll do with them when I go to Chicago for four days at the end of the month. I think I'm going to drag the kids to Lac Leamy tonight for a walk :) I haven't been able to use the treadmill (see Monday's entry), and I need to get moving. Taking the stairs at work and planning ahead for meals has helped though. In two days, I'm down 4 lbs. Holy hell, those stairs... I work on the 5th floor, you wouldn't think that walking up 4 flights would be that hard, but even coworkers who are in good shape are seriously winded when they arrive. I have to rest somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 to catch my breath, but that will improve with practice, I imagine.

Last night's dinner was flank "steak" (two inches thick - it says "roast" on the package, but I've never seen a roast that flat and steak-like) with fiddleheads. YES! Fiddleheads are in season! The kids and I very much enjoyed them last night. Tonight will likely be meatballs with steamed veggies and either couscous or quinoa. I'm sharing this video because it's just how I feel right at the moment :)

Frustration and motivation...

Sorry it's been so long, but I've been feeling pretty alone and unmotivated recently. Rob and I have been finding less and less time to talk, and when we do talk, it feels like we're just background noise to each other. Kind of sucks, but hopefully the trip down at the end of the month will solve that. We've both been really busy and had a lot of stress piling up. The stress of not knowing if I'm going to remain employed beyond the next two weeks is starting to wear on me as well.

This is kind of how my life feels right now...

I hadn't gotten on the scale in a few weeks, so I decided to get on this morning. I did NOT like the number I saw. I am not happy. I had noticed that my legs were bothering me more than usual lately (actually, pretty much the way they used to before I lost 40 lbs....) Well, it turns out that my overall loss is now only 20 lbs. This is a big problem. I haven't had the spare cash lying around to renew my gym membership since the beginning of April, so I've only been to the gym once (paying cash) in a month. Not good enough. I've got to get my documents together and get my taxes done so I'll have a bit of money for stuff like that.

Last night, I was totally motivated. Rob and I are doing the arthritis walk in just over a month. I've been trying to get moving to train for that. (I can walk 5K, but it really takes a lot out of me.) So last night, I put the kids to bed and tried to hop on the treadmill. "Tried" being the operative word. First, Skye seems to have misplaced the key (the magnetic safety thingie you hook to your clothes)... I know it was Skye, because she's the one who keeps sneaking onto the treadmill when she thinks I'm not paying attention. Now I have to see if I can get another one of those. I used a fridge magnet last night, and all was great. Then I hit "start" and nothing happened. The belt didn't even budge. ARGH. A lot of detritus passes through the back room - the cats like to sleep on the treadmill, so cat litter, hair and other stuff they drag around gets left on the belt... and the recycle bin sometimes lives on or next to it, so that leaves some stuff behind as well, and the kids tend to run the machine without sweeping off the belt first. So lord knows how much crap has accumulated under the belt. I try to lubricate it regularly, but clearly, something is off.

Fortunately, the belt has a five year warranty on it and the engine has a lifetime warranty. So I should be able to have it repaired for minimal cost, hopefully. I did take the stairs up to my office this morning (after the 3-block walk to the office). I thought I was going to have a coronary in between floors 4 and 5 (where I work), and my legs were STIFF when I got to my desk, but there we are. I made it. No more elevator until that number is a little smaller!

Still no real word on what's happening with school. For the last semester, our prof emailed us an open-book exam he wants us to return to him by end-of-day tomorrow, and then we have another ten days after that to complete our final projects. I think that the idea of this strike has been corrupted considerably since its inception, and now it's just become an embarrassment and an annoyance. PLEASE just let us all go back to class. This tactic isn't working, let's come up with something else.

I have one basil plant and my chives remaining from the original batch of seedlings. Everything else died :( I thought the chives were dead, but the little buggers grew back and are now about six inches long! The new seedlings are doing quite well, and by the time they're ready for transplanting (soon, I think... the cilantro already has true leaves poking out), it'll be warm enough outside to leave them there. I want to try to find an end table or bench to put them on outside. I've given up on planting rhubarb this year. I'll have to content myself with the crops at Rob's and my mom's house. Not sure if anything has broken ground in Rob's "garden"... we planted a few flowers here and there, but I'll have to check on it when I visit on Memorial Day weekend :)

The baby blanket is really starting to look like a blanket (I'm 11 rows from the turning point... then it's all decreases!) I decided to go until I hit 125 stitches, and then start decreasing. It'll be a good size stroller or car seat blanket :) The granny square lapghan may end up being a baby blanket after all... I'm not sure that 3 balls of yarn is enough to make anything bigger. It's doing well though. I attached the third ball this weekend. Did a lot of knitting while watching a couple of movies. I can't wait to finish these two though... they're kind of mindless projects, but there's been too much going on to deal with the lace curtain. I'm looking forward to a slightly more relaxed period up ahead for me to make some progress on that one. (It's half done... I just need time to do the other half!)

And that's basically what's been going on with me for the last two weeks. How's things by you?

AARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

Picture this on a baby-blue carpet with slightly less plant material, and you'll see what the cat woke me up with last night. Yup, she climbed up onto a 6 foot tall bookshelf (don't ask me how, I have no idea... she is NOT a jumper), and knocked the pot right off the shelf. AFTER we had all gone to bed, of course. Every time something like this happens, I ask myself again why we keep this cat. I don't LIKE the cat, she's the most destructive creature I have ever had the misfortune to come across. She makes me unhappy and very, very angry. She poops just over the edge of the litter box so it ends up on the kitchen floor (which is gross). At first, I thought it was because we weren't cleaning the litter out often enough, but now she does it with fresh litter in the pan. 

If I'm honest, I really, really freaking HATE this cat. Sure, she's cute. But she destroys everything she comes in contact with, goes after my yarn and knitting (that alone is a reason to boot her to the curb, but I've learned to lock everything up in a room she can't get to), and she beats my cat up on a regular basis. The problem is... she's my son's cat, and he adores her. The second he walks into the house, he's got her in his arms and she follows him everywhere. Argh.

She even looks evil - the long-haired one on the left.

I went through my bookshelves last night and came up with two boxes of books to get rid of. I haven't even gone through the boxes of books in my closet! So I've reorganized the yarn stash and the book collection, which may sound like a waste of time when I'm supposed to be getting the apartment into shape for renovations, but it got a WHOLE lot of loose stuff out of circulation in the common areas of the apartment :) 

The granny square lap blanket is taking shape :) I've used one whole skein of yarn and it's about a 2 foot square at this point :) It is surprisingly warm for an acrylic granny square, and I like how it's looking :) I haven't touched the baby blanket or the kitchen curtain because those are at-home knitting projects, and I'm trying to get more cleaning done, so very little knitting time lately. Maybe I'll take a bit of time out and watch a movie or something this weekend so I can work on the baby project :) 

On a positive note, I (and Rob) will be walking in the 2012 Walk to Fight Arthritis in Ottawa on June 10th. I'm all signed up and registered, and I've started fundraising, so if anyone was so inclined to sponsor me, you can do so online by clicking this link - I've already started to make a dent in my fund-raising goal! Thanks to everyone who has donated so far!!!

Evening quickie...

Well, most of the cleaning done this evening involved my stash. Yes, I went through my ENTIRE yarn stash, reorganized everything (it's amazing how much more is put away in bins now!) and chose a whole seven balls of yarn to get rid of *blush*.

Not my stash, although I probably have as much... 

So now there aren't stray balls lying around all over the house, and everything I've bought in the last year has found a home. Five of the seven balls I'm giving away have even been spoken for (if nobody claims the other two in the next week or so, they'll go into the goodwill bag).

I watered the remaining plants. My last, lonely tomato is deader than a doornail :( Stupid cat. One pot of cilantro is also completely gone, but the other pot is hanging on (for dear life). (The empty pots were relocated to the balcony until the seedlings are ready). The basil is still going strong, but I'm not sure about the parsley or chives. The cat ATE all the bloody chives (and amazingly didn't puke them back up), so I'm hoping they'll come back up. But even if they don't, the new plantings should start to sprout in a few days. I've got six parsley, six chive, four marjoram, four oregano, four rosemary, six cilantro and I think six more basil.

The kids cleared out the recycling that was cluttering up the back room, and I've been taking the compost down on a daily basis. I may run the dishwasher before I go to bed and cycle some laundry through. I've finished one entire ball of the granny square lapghan, but my wrist was complaining a bit at lunchtime, so no more knitting or crocheting tonight. Now it's time to go read something!

and apparently I'm gullible....

I read an article online. I got all mouth-frothy over Ann Romney's stupidity and how she was single-handedly putting the women's rights movement back about sixty or seventy years (I wasn't aware we still needed a women's rights movement, but apparently we do. Arizona and Wisconsin, I'm looking at you.)

I posted this epic blog post about Romney's stupidity and basically begged my American friends to vote for the other guy (I still think y'all should vote for the other guy, because Mitt is a scary, scary person).

The speech that Mrs. Romney supposedly gave to a Moms for Mitt gathering on April 17th in Philadelphia, PA? Never happened. The site the article appeared on was a political SATIRE site, and there is no proof anywhere else in the innernetz that there is any credence to the quote attributed to Mrs. Romney.

I haz egg on mah face. Please excuse me while I go wash it off.

Sad plant update *sigh*

Taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/tetedefromage/39408608/  

So I came home from knit night on Friday to find my son's cat STANDING in my pots, busily digging out the tomato plant. She had also destroyed my chives, but shown very little interest in any of the other pots. I tossed her down out of the pots and went to find something to clean up with. The SECOND I turned my back, she was back up on top of the freezer, digging in the tomato again. ARGH.

I already knew I was going to have to buy some tomato plants, but for pete's sake, cat, can't you leave this stuff alone for like TWO WEEKS? This is why I've NEVER had houseplants. The cats destroy EVERYTHING. Some people find this endearing, some find it a necessary evil of having pets. I hate it. And I'm starting to REALLY hate the cats. I have to admit, George didn't show the slightest bit of interest in this batch of plants, but she destroyed all my pumpkin and squash seedlings a few years ago. *sigh*

I was pretty frustrated and ready to give up then and there until I talked to Rob. "Well, it's not planting season yet, you have time to start some more!" Yeah... like I felt like starting more just to provide the cats with hours of enjoyment destroying it all. But he had a point. By the time THIS batch of seedlings was big enough to transplant, the plants could live outside full-time (and not just during the day because it still gets too cold at night). So today I went off and bought pellet refills, plumped them up, and planted some basil, cilantro, parsley, marjoram, rosemary, chives and oregano (three of those were new seeds I picked up today).

I've also started reading the new Jean M. Auel book, The Land of Painted Caves. I love this series so much! I have my friend Bob to thank for handing me Clan of the Cave Bear when I was a young, impressionable fourteen-year-old. I've been addicted ever since. HIGHLY recommended.

The granny square blanket is growing by leaps and bounds. Not so much the garter stitch blanket, but I blame stubborn circ cables for that one. It's so frustrating to have to unkink the cables every couple of minutes because I twist the knitting as I go. I have to get moving on it though. Mom is about 6 months along already! The kids are playing at the park, and I think dinner is going to be a simple affair... pork chops, some swiss chard sauteed with some jalapeno cheese whiz (it's awesome in scrambled eggs!) and maybe some rice or quinoa to go with it. For a relaxing Sunday, I'm pretty tired!