Jeez Louise

I hope this isn’t an indication of how my day will be

Louise — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:41:17 +0000

I don’t know about you but I don’t like flushing the toilet right before I take a shower. In our probably 70 year old house (okay, at the very least 40), it messes with the water temperature and I run the risk of either being scalded or frozen when I do get in the shower. So.
This morning I peed (are you impressed?) and then noticed that someone had left our MacLean’s magazine on the side of the tub (yeah, we’re bathroom readers. I take a bath, I bring reading material. Other bathroom activities also engender literacy). I moved it to the back of the toilet, since I was about to get in the shower.

At one point during my shower, I heard the rustling of pages. You see where this is going. When I got out of the shower, there was the magazine, sticking out of the bowl, absorbing things. I grabbed it up, and threw it in the garbage. And then got back in the shower for sanitation.

sucks to your ass-mar

Louise — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:27:43 +0000

So this morning I woke up, came downstairs, smelled some bleach that had gotten spilled yesterday, and suddenly was in the throes of a full-fledged asthma attack. I looked around, and couldn’t find my inhaler. The dogs were doing their peepee dance around my legs, and I figured my inhaler might be out in the car, so I took them out. My inhaler wasn’t in the car. The dogs still needed to go so I let them drag me around the block. By the end of it I was coughing so hard that I was gagging (aren’t you happy that you started reading this blog post?) while the dogs peed on some Ferrari parts that this one neighbour of ours has had out on the side of the road for the past four months (does he want people to take them? Is he selling them? Is he hoping that the trash collectors will take them? No one knows. Oh the joys of living in the semi-ghetto).

When I got back in the house, I woke up Rob. He looked for my puffer. No dice. I used my peak flow meter and it was pretty low for me. It was at this point that Rob decided for me that I would be calling in. I did, then rushed off to work to get a lesson plan together. It was only 6:30 so there was no one there but one of the janitors who was like “YOU SHOULD GO TO THE HOSPITAL!”. Luckily for me I do keep a couple of extra inhalers at work in my desk. I took it, six times, then came home and laid on the couch. By about 11:30 my breathing was better. I am in major pain, still, because my muscles tend to bunch up during this kind of thing. And I feel terrible for taking a day for this stuff, but then I feel terrible every time I take a day.

On the bright side, my dogs and I got to watch an insane number of infomercials (Mr. T is selling some kind of oven thing, and even though I’m bald and could never use it, I’m slightly enamoured of the EZ Combs commercial). And next week is March Break!

PS – my inhaler was on top of the mirror frame in our front hallway. Where I leave it 5 times out of six. No, not stunned at all. Goes to show that a lack of oxygen will mess with your brain function.

We’re such DINKs.

Louise — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:15:54 +0000

I mean, it’s pretty much against our will, but we are. DINKs, that is. If you don’t count our dogs as “kids”. Which I sort of do. I know, I know, annoying people who treat their pets as children.

Anyway. We’ve been discussing birthday gifts. Rob wants to get me some more laptop memory or even a new laptop for mine. I’m torn. I kind of feel like this laptop is fine, but at the same time maybe something with a bit more storage or a bit faster would be good. Plus, that way we could give this laptop to his parents, and they could actually be online instead of calling us up and asking us to look up websites for them (the way Rob’s mom does it is funny – “Please go to h…t…t…p, colon, forward slash, forward slash, double-you, double-you, double-you, period…”) and having to do all their facebook stuff on their cellphones.

At the same time I kind of want/need a new camera. Our camera is okay but it’s starting to get rickety. I have a hard time getting the battery part open and closed. When I take pictures, there’s a mysterious shadow in the upper left-hand corner. The zoom isn’t quite as zoomy as I’d like.

Eh. My birthday is over 3 months away. We have the time to figure that out.

(meanwhile, for Rob’s birthday? I am not sure yet at all).

I have been watching too much TLC these past two days.

Louise — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:49:21 +0000

If you haven’t, go at least watch the video on my last post. You won’t be sorry. Or maybe you will. Probably not though.
So, school is closed today for the second day. Third day this week. I went in on Tuesday and yesterday, but I’m not, today. Because holy crap, it is still very windy and the visibility is at about minus three hundred. Thus, Rob is not at work either. I told him that he could go (he gets a drive in in the morning with a coworker), but that I wouldn’t be coming in to pick him up. Luckily his job doesn’t penalize you for missing due to weather because there was no way he was going in. I have a bunch of schoolwork here that I’m going to plow through this afternoon, and we are putting up new curtains in the livingroom (ones that actually cover the entire windows). Big day!
When I was out walking the dogs this morning I was walking along and in front of me all I could see was this glowy red thing about 20 feet ahead. As I got closer I realized it was a guy shoveling his driveway with a cigarette in his mouth. Of course the dogs wanted to meet him and he was like “OH WHAT A FINE SET OF DOGS YOU HAVE THERE!” so we stopped to talk for a bit. I told him I was surprised that his cigarette was staying lit in all this wind and snow and he told me it was an electronic cigarette. Basically, he’s trying to quit smoking but still needs the feeling of smoking. Kind of makes me glad I never took up smoking, but maybe I will check them out and see if my sister would consider using one. She’s been saying she wants to quit smoking for quite awhile now.

I just looked out the window and seriously, you can’t see ANYTHING. They’ve said that it might start to get better later on today; I hope so because we have dog haircuts scheduled for this evening (haircut for Doozer, just a bath for Sprocket). For now? I just might take a nap.

It’s times like these when I wish there was a documentary crew following us.

Louise — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:55:00 +0000

The kids at my school think that if you sleep with your pajamas inside out and put a spoon under your pillow, the predicted snowstorm will come to fruition.
They must ALL have been doing it last night, because when I woke up this morning, there was a one-hour delay on. I took the dogs out for their walk, and it was freezing drizzle a little bit (not quite as bad as Tuesday, when we had another storm day) so we slid around. I got ready for my day, and then waited. At 7:45 they announced that schools across the Island were closed. It didn’t seem TERRIBLE out, but they were saying that things would be getting worse, mid-morning.

Once Rob left for work I had breakfast, then headed in to town. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible yet. I stayed at work for a few hours, until I looked out my classroom window and saw a little car sliding by sideways. Then I grabbed up my work and came home. At 3:30, I took the dogs out again. This time, things were terrible. They had their sweaters on, I had on Rob’s big winter coat, plus my hat and a headscarf over that, and a ski mask over all that. Boots, gloves. The snow was blowing so hard that I could barely see. We got all turned around at one point and were headed exactly in the opposite direction from where we needed to be going. But, each dog did his business and we did finally get home. The wind, though! I’m a giant lady, and at one point I had to lean forward at a more-than-45-degree angle just to stay upright. We got into the house at 3:50. Rob phoned to chat while he was on his break. He’s usually done work at 6 pm, but I told him that I didn’t want to drive in this after dark, and that I was leaving right away. I got to his work at 5. We got back to town near 6 pm.
(as I’m typing this, the electricity just went out. I hope it comes back on! It will be cold here otherwise!)

When we got to town, we realized that we didn’t really have much in the house in the way of food. We decided on a quick stop at the grocery store. When we got out of the car in the parking lot, Rob went all… well.
As he was opening my door for me, he said “Louise, do you know what I love?” “What’s that?” “SPRING!”
I gave him a look. “It’s not spring. It’s a frickin blizzard. What are you talking about?”
And then, THIS happened (audio version recreated in Rob’s office, but fairly authentic).

So picture my husband, in his “shorts”, with his pants legs pulled up to his knees, doing a kind of weird little jig while talking about the Wild Bologna of Springtime in the middle of the Sobeys parking lot.

God I love him.

w/e

Louise — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:47:26 +0000

There isn’t much happening. I wanted to sleep in today (I didn’t). We were supposed to have a snowstorm yesterday (we didn’t). Rob thought he’d be over his cold by now (he isn’t). I thought my period was starting the other day (it wasn’t? – a couple of tiny spots on Thursday and then… nothing).

What *is* happening: On my walk with the dogs this morning, there was a positive cacophony of birds . Now not one of them was a robin which are apparently the first sign of Spring, but it was a nicer sound than the crows that have been the exclusive soundtrack around here for the past months.

We had a fairly quiet day together yesterday, Rob, the dogs, and I. We spent it reading, or talking, or watching a movie (Up In The Air is good!). I made a lasagna. His parents called, we talked for a bit. Fairly quiet.

I am now trying to figure out orzo recipes. I had never seen orzo in person, and then a few weeks back it was in a big bin, marked down by 50%, at the grocery store. Of course I bought it, but I can’t figure out what to do with it. Later we will go to my parents’, because my mom did something to her computer and the disc drive isn’t working. A good friend is coming over this evening, as she does every Sunday.

All in all, a fairly uneventful couple of days. Just as I like them.

la misere

Louise — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:49:33 +0000

My Dad, as you know, has had some health problems these past few years. He started off with an aortic aneurysm back when Rob and I were still living in Nova Scotia. Other stuff has popped up through the years. A couple of weeks ago, he had trouble breathing, because he had the flu. The pulse oximeter showed that his oxygenation rate was down in the 60% range (I have had terrible, terrible asthma attacks that caused my lungs to collapse, and my oxygen never went lower than the 80s). Not good.
Anyway, apparently that last bout of the flu caused his aortic tear (which has never healed, and will never heal; that’s just not how they work) to get a bit bigger. Again, not good.
So in a few weeks he will be going to see a surgeon (out of province, there’s no one here who could perform the procedure) to discuss having a stent put in. This is major surgery, for a guy who’s already pretty sick.
Worry worry worry.

Life, it’s bigger

Louise — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:41:06 +0000

Everything’s been pretty hum-drum lately. No need for any increase in life insurance rates because nothing we’re doing is even vaguely risky. Here’s a sampling of my daily activities:

6: Wake up. Walk dogs. Dogs are crazy and want to only poop on the very top of snowbanks.
6h30: Get home. Shower. Get dressed. Eat breakfast. Snuggle dogs. Load dishwasher or washing machine (sometimes both! Usually just one).
7h10: Wake up Rob, who intelligently showered and set out his clothes the night before.
7h20/7h30: Drive Rob to work. Turn around and drive back to town and drive to my work.
8h15: Get to work. Start working.
3h15: stop working with kids. Start doing other work.
4h15: Leave work for home.
4h30: Get home. Walk dogs.
5: Get back from walk. Do the prep for supper by chopping things up (if it’s something that is cooked fast – if it’s something that takes longer, start actually cooking it.
5h30: Leave to pick up Rob.
6h: Pick up Rob.
6h30 get home. Finish supper (most of the time Rob does this part because I am whiny).
7: Eat
7h30: FREE TIME! In which we fool with the dogs and talk to each other and I do some school work and whatever!!! THE FREEDOM IS INTOXICATING!
8h30: I am tired so I usually go to bed around now. I read for about half an hour or so. Generally I’m asleep by 9 or 9h30.

Rob’s work schedule is going to change in a few weeks. He’ll be home later in the morning (and will be carpooling with someone else) so I can leave a bit later for work. Also he’ll have more time to spend with the dogs, and later his schedule will be like, 4 days on, 3 days off, so he will have more home time.

So yeah. Interesting blog posts? Not that those have happened in the past three years… but if you were expecting any, they’re probably not happening anytime soon.

I’m mostly talking about shoes here. It’s probably boring. And there are lots of pictures.

Louise — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:49:23 +0000

I haven’t worn a pair of high heeled shoes in years. Back when I did wear them, I was in my early 20s and they pretty much never cost any more than $15. Cheap Wal-Mart shoes. The last pair I wore (after many years of not) were at our wedding – they were very comfortable, but you can’t wear white satin pumps every day. I gave up on them probably at about the time when chunky heels became passé. I already have balance problems – balancing on stiletto heels is just not going to happen.
When I have ventured back, with the exception of my wedding shoes, any pair I have tried on has been immensely uncomfortable and nearly impossible to walk in.
Now I realize that that was probably due to the quality of the shoes themselves than the style. Considering the last pair I wore before the wedding were remarkably like this:

… well, I think the reasoning behind the discomfort is… ahem… clear. And no, I didn’t choose these for myself. They were part of an unfortunate bridesmaid’s ensemble, and were chosen for me by the bride who wore platform flip-flops under her shoe-hiding dress.

Anyway. Yesterday I went to a department store looking for jeans. I only own one pair of jeans, which I bought for $10 three years ago, and they’re getting pretty old now. They’re still okay for work (I have been wearing them every single Casual Friday), but I can tell that in a month or so they will have crossed the line from “still professional albeit about an inch too short due to repeated washings” to “worn knee area giving way in front of a roomful of 8th graders, giving teacher that delightful Joey Russo look:

All together now: Whoa!

Unfortunately, the department stores in our area are not following Stacey and Clinton’s rules for jeans. The only jeans they seem to be carrying in the plus size section are skinny jeans (OMG what is the irony of size 18/20 SKINNY JEANS?) or Mom Jeans with elastic waistbands. And the colours… I had the choice between bright pink, this terrible colour (although not the suspenders), and greyish black.

All I want is a pair of jeans that are a nice colour, that fit me properly (which is difficult in the best of times, since I have a much smaller waist when compared to my hips) and that don’t give me camel toe or look like I’m waiting for a flood. Is that too much to ask?

Anyway. After the failed Jeans Expedition of 2010, I decided to go look at shoes. Things always go a bit better with shoes – at least I know approximately what size I take (a 9, if they’re sufficiently wide…9.5 or 10 if not). To be honest, the shoes I’ve been wearing for the past two years are these:

And they’re comfy, but they’re not really… stylish. And I want to be less shlumpy. Which I’m fully aware I am. I don’t know how to do that, though (I obviously do need the What Not To Wear people to come and help me with that), all that well.

BUT!

I found out that high-heeled shoes aren’t as uncomfortable as I remember. This possibly has to do with the fact that I was trying on shoes that aren’t made of plastic and cardboard. They weren’t six-inch heels or anything, just one or two, but they were very, very comfortable, and (I think) kind of nice looking.
I must have tried on about 10 pair. The only pair I can find a picture of online are these:
width="450" height="407" />
(they come in black and brown).

I love them. But they were a little outside of the budget I’d set for jeans (WHICH I DIDN’T GET), and besides, if I got them, then I’d have to save up all over again for a pair of jeans (not that I’m saving my pennies for years to buy pants, but I have this odd quirk where I like to set myself a budget and stick to it and sometimes it takes a few weeks of setting aside $10 here and there before I’ll let myself get the thing that I want.

And then later in the day, the battery of our car died and we needed a new one – so it’s a good thing I didn’t purchase either shoes or jeans during the day, because instead we spent our money on a car battery. Which is decidedly unfashionable and less than cute.

Protected: Third time’s a charm?

Louise — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:11:31 +0000