January 13, 2012 by Louise
We had a storm last night. And the snow outside is up to my knees. The snowfall has ended, there’s no wind, and we’re supposed to get freezing rain or rain (depending on the temperature) later. School isn’t cancelled (not even delayed!) so before my shower, I’d better get to shoveling out the driveway.
And this is where the “good wife” part comes in: Today’s Rob’s day off. Instead of waking him up and making him put on the awesome lowa renegade boots that his dad gave him (his dad got them for free, and then they didn’t fit him), I’ve suited up, and am on my way out to flounder through the snow and hopefully not kill myself with a shovel, while he sweetly slumbers in our oh-so-comfortable bed (which I miss very, very much).
THEN I’ll shower, get dressed, and go to work.
(PS – Rob is a great husband, too. Have I listed the many ways lately? Probably not. Have to get on that).
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by Louise
I have been waking up at 5 am pretty much every work day since September. But this week, even though I’m going to bed at the same time as ever, I’ve been finding it super difficult to get up. So much so that I’m hitting “snooze”. A lot.
Maybe it’s just the time of year. I don’t see a heck of a lot of sunshine during my days and maybe that’s leaving me feeling run-down.
Either way, it’s 7 am now, a time when I’m usually leaving for work, and I haven’t showered yet. Probably should get on that.
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January 10, 2012 by Louise
One of my co-workers is From Away. She also doesn’t speak English very well. Lately she’s been asking me to help her find things like a notary who is open on weekends, someone for snow removal, and someone to come in and steam clean her carpets. I’m no better than anyone else at anything, but I figure I can help, with my grasp of the English language: I google “mytown”+”snow removal” or “mytown”+ “notary”, or “mytown” + “carpet cleaning”.
Well why am I getting results like “carpet cleaning raleigh nc” (SO FAR AWAY from where I live) and “Notary Public Charlotte NC“. So then I feel like no help whatsoever to this poor woman. Who then just asks someone else and they’re able to help her with finding everything she needs within 20 seconds because they KNOW PEOPLE.
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by Louise
Confession: Our Christmas tree is still up. I like our tree and I want it to stay up FOREVER, kind of. Only not really because then I’d be one of those people who sort of annoy me: the ones who put up their tree and decorate their houses on November 1st… only it will be in the opposite direction. I know we should take it down. I know, I know. I haven’t been able to do it yet, though. And actually, I bought some new ornaments the other day (we love after-Christmas sales!) and kind of have this… urge… to put those on the tree, just to see what they look like.
My husband, though, who has an annoying habit of being sensible, says not to because of complications.
FINE THEN.
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January 9, 2012 by Louise
Things that I didn’t used to know but that now I do know (volume 9000):
- Capers and anchovies are in no way related (I used to think that they were the same thing, or at least that they were both fish-related cousins to each other but it turns out that capers are some kind of plant). I still have never eaten either.
- Britches and breeches are the same thing. I used to think that breeches were only for people in England and britches were underwear. I will not tell you exactly how recently I was disabused of this notion. Because this occurred all too recently for a 35 year old woman.
- When I was in sixth grade my best friend (who was also a total hypochondriac, I realize now) told me that if you sat on concrete, you would get haemorrhoids. I didn’t even know what haemorrhoids were but I sure as hell didn’t want them so from then until probably my third year in university I avoided sitting anywhere near concrete. Then one of my roommates (whose mother was a nurse, so I could trust her) told me that it wasn’t true. Then I looked it up because it’s better to know for sure… and yeah. So not true.
And now you know what I knew (or didn’t know). Bet you could’ve done without the haemorrhoid bit though.
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by Louise
I have been soooo tired since starting back to work last week. The weekend hasn’t helped; on Friday night/Saturday morning the dogs bizarrely decided that they needed a walk at 2h30 am, and since Rob works on Saturdays and needed his sleep, the task fell to me. Even though I had stupidly stayed up until 11ish on Friday night and was soooo sleeeepy.
And I mean, go outside and walk around for twenty minutes in below-freezing temperatures. It will wake you up all right. I couldn’t get back to sleep before 5h30, and had to get up again at 7.
Saturday during the day was the turkey-cooking extravaganza, so there was no napping. I went to bed early enough (like 9?) on Saturday, but had weird dreams all night that kept waking me. And got up at 5 anyway on Sunday morning because why not, if I wasn’t sleeping properly.
And this morning I am dragging my butt around wishing I could have just one more hour of sleep. Or twenty minutes. Anything, really. Compounded by this headache-that-might-be-a-migraine. Uuugh.
(I should not complain, I know. I have coworkers who struggle with insomnia and it’s not petty stuff like “oooh I didn’t get my full 8 hours”, it’s more like “Hmm I haven’t had any actual sleep in three days”).
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by Louise
Just say it. It is one of the best names in the entire world. It’s attached to this guy:
but I wouldn’t care whose name it was, I just think it is the best name.
Also: You should be watching Sherlock, if you can find it.
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January 8, 2012 by Louise
Last week I had a little shopping spree. My favourite (only place on PEI that sells clothing over size 18) store was having a sale where everything was already on sale by 20 – 40%, and then you took an extra 50% off the sale price. So I got more than $450 worth of clothes for about $180 (I was ferreting out those deals I tell you). I think my favourite item, though, is a winter coat that Rob found and brought to me while I was in the dressing room (I had not even planned on looking at coats):
Compared to the (lined, but still) hoodies I’ve been layering this year, this coat is like wearing my own personal furnace.
Speaking of clothing… dress code. Many of my students got new clothes for Christmas and whoever bought them for them obviously didn’t know our school dress code (it’s nothing extreme, just no miniskirts, belly shirts, or offensive sayings on any clothing) because they’re coming in in what they think are funny t shirts (which we then have to ask them to either change or turn inside out), or clothing that’s really, really not appropriate for winter. I mean would you wear this (without the super high heels) when it’s -20C? Which according to the Fahrenheit converter I found is -4F. And then they’re complaining to me if I have the window open, because I’m warm (I’m wearing a SWEATER! and a knee-length skirt! and TIGHTS!) and they’re cold. And I tell them “I’m not taking anything off, so you’re going to have to wear more clothes”. And they roll their eyes because ADULTS ARE STUPID.
I know, I know. Grownups just don’t understand.
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by Louise
The turkey from yesterday? I purchased it at our local butcher shop. This was my first time buying anything other than beef, pork, or poultry pieces from there but it’s a turkey, whatever, right?
WRONG.
First off I hate touching raw meat so reaching inside this bird looking for the giblet bag was a horrible adventure. Made especially more so because there was no giblet bag. Which surprised me a little, because even though they hadn’t included the giblets, they had included the neck.
As in, THE NECK WAS STILL ATTACHED. And I’m sorry, but I have never encountered that. I tried to tug it out of the little neck… (ugh) cavity, and it just… stayed. So then I tried to cut it off, which also didn’t work (probably because I was going “ew ewewew” and holding it at arm’s length while halfheartedly jabbing at it with a carving knife). So then, I decided to cook the turkey with the neck on.
We’re having leftovers today, and that neck is still there.
SO GROSS.
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January 7, 2012 by Louise
After work yesterday, I was stopped at the grocery store to buy food for our supper. Just an in-and-out trip. Yet for some reason as I passed the meat department, I just sort of… grabbed a giant hunk of corned beef. No clue why. Even as I was passing it over the barcode scanner at the self-checkout, I was thinking “why am I buying this?” but I couldn’t bring myself to put it back.
And then I started planning this elaborate meal for today. Boiled dinner (corned beef, potatoes, carrot, turnip, cabbage), turkey, stuffing. Which meant that I had to go out and buy a turkey. The whole time I’m thinking “what in the heck am I even doing right now?”.
Then I woke up this morning and as I passed by the calendar, I realized that today is the 7th. Which is five years to the day since my grandma passed away.
And Grandma used to cook this exact same meal every Saturday. Of course, she was feeding anywhere from 10 to 20 people each time, and what I’m cooking is only for Rob and I, but hey. We’ll have leftovers. Leftovers are my favourite.
So was Grandma.
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