Let’s see. The highlight of my week was getting my fingers caught in the car door. Again. This time it was my forefinger and middle fingers to get the brunt of the damage. Bran rolled his eyes and Boy was underwhelmed (it was he who closed the door on them, again). My forefinger isn’t very happy with bruising across the nail and a nasty scraping of skin off just below it. The middle finger just has a bit of bruising under my fingernail. Nothing was broken and everything is healing nicely. My boss is threatening to get me a helmet to wear because he’s convinced that someday I’m going to decapitate myself. Bran and I figure that something like lacrosse gloves or hockey gloves would be of more use. The residents just wince and then laugh at me.
My piercings are healing up nicely and look marvellous. I love them! I’m already thinking about getting more. The next one I want to get is tragus done next. I just can’t decide if I want to get both ears done or just one, and if one, which one. I might not though, I just read about how it might interfere with the use of ear buds. Hmmm…I’ll have to think some more. It’s a good thing I don’t get holes punched in my ears more often than once a year or longer.
I got some of my beading orders. I have the display racks for bracelets and earrings and the earring cards. They’re set aside and will go into a plastic box when I get one. I have more beads and tools. Alas, I ordered the wrong wire. I ordered 1/2 round. I should’ve ordered round. 1/2 round is shaped like it says. It works well for wire wrapping but not for other things. I’ve been playing with it regardless and done a few nice things. I ordered the round wire last night. I should arrive sometime next week. I got a new, metal jig. It’ll come in handy when I made chandelier earrings. I can also make my own hooks an closers with it.
I have a tool that I call the clapper. It’s two pieces of thick plastic, similar to what cutting boards are made of but somewhat harder. You put the metal work in between them and either use a hammer or hand, pound on the top piece. It helps to make the metal harder without damaging it.
I also have a neat tool that will allow me to make my own jump rings of various sizes as well as other round shapes with wire. I also have a pair of nylon tip pliers that will help me make scrolls without damaging the wire at all. Before I got this tool the pliers I used marred the wire. That makes oxidizing more likely. Of course, the wire I’ll be working with won’t oxidize as it will be surgical grade stainless steel.
I got some leopard skin jasper and aquamarine beads. They’re all quite lovely.
I’ve been looking at real estate in town for the past couple of weeks as well. It’s good to see that there are houses available that we’ll be able to afford once the will is settled and dispersed. We probably won’t end up in the area that Bran most desires. That tends to be an expensive area anyway, but prices are still coming down. It’s possible that by the time everything is ready (including us) we’ll be able to afford to buy in that area. There is one loft condo in an old warehouse that would be nice. 1800 square feet of living area. It’s out of our affordable range, but who knows? Maybe we’ll win the lottery, right?
I’m surprised at the number of new houses being built that don’t have things like closets at the front and back door. I mean, if you’re coming inside after gardening or even taking the trash out on a rainy day, don’t you want to have a place to put your shoes that isn’t in front of the fridge? If you have company come over, don’t you want a place to hang their coats? I just don’t understand that. So it’s a requirement for me, to have that.
Another annoyance to me is a fireplace. I mean, sure, they look good, but they interfere with furniture arrangement. I wouldn’t use a fireplace. When we had one at the last place we rented we only used it a couple of times. It was never used for heating. We finally put the couch in front of it because that’s where I wanted seating. That goes for those wood stoves too.
I like the idea of a galley kitchen. There are lots of houses that have that and then the eating area to the side. It’s similar to what many apartments have in terms of cooking/eating arrangement. It’s compact. The weird ones have the fridge or stove sitting all by themselves off to the side like little orphans. I want a surface next to the stove to put stuff if needs must.
You’ll get to see photos of the place we move into and of the yard. Chances are the yard will change because I’m not keen on grass. It’s a large monoculture space that lacks colour variety. Though I won’t take up the entire lawn immediately, I’ll work on making flower, vegetable and herb gardens larger and larger until there is little or no grass left. Perennials take less care than grass and are definitely prettier. Flowers encourage the population of pollinators like bees and butterflies. We need more of them in the world.
A friend is in town visiting. Right now she’s staying at other friends’ places but on Sunday she comes here. So I’ll be helping finish up the cleaning (the bathroom is long overdue) and getting laundry done. Laundry needs to be done anyway. We’re all kind of short on clothes.
That’s about it. I think I’m going to take apart some bracelets.
Let’s see. The Fringe Festival was a bust so far as selling my jewelry goes. I sold only about 10 pairs of earrings and no bracelets. There were other people there selling earrings made of feathers, glass and plastic who had better sales. Of course their prices were like, $2 a pair and such. I can’t go that low. I can spend upwards of 1/2 hour putting together a single pair of earrings (some of the more complex chandelier earrings take even longer) and use supplies that cost more than a plastic bead would cost. The shoppers wanted cheap stuff. I’m sure they got that. I hope the people who bought my stuff are happy and remain happy for a long while.
Bran was steady in his dedication to selling my stuff. He was out there every day, chatting to people, being all friendly and shit. Definitely stuff I have little tolerance for. Boy would go out and help him set up at times when our friend had to be at work. I’m extremely grateful to both of them for that.
Now I have to rethink my jewelry. People keep telling me my stuff is good and that they like it but it just doesn’t sell. That’s really discouraging. Even when the prices were cut to $10 a pair, $15 for 2 pair and $19 for 3 pair and the bracelets prices were cut from $20 to $10, nothing sold. Even people who wore dangly earrings didn’t even glance at my stuff. I just don’t get it.
One thing I thought of, judging from some of the stuff I heard, is for show sales in person, I’m going to concentrate on making simple birthstone earrings. maybe a few fancy chandeliers but nothing epic. People seemed to like the idea of having their birthstones. I heard this from people looking at the wrapped stone necklaces made by the woman we were sharing a table with. She made out fairly well and people were always more interested in her stuff than mine.
After that, I just don’t know what to do. I know I overpriced my stuff for what people were willing to pay on Etsy. That makes me sad because then my work is undervalued, if that makes sense. Plus I have to pay a shit pile to ship stuff and people don’t want to pay that either. I don’t want to lose money making jewelry. I mean, I love doing it, but I don’t want to be giving it away.
I’m feeling rather discouraged about it right now.
On a brighter, if more painful note, I got two more piercings in my left ear. I now have holes from my lobe nearly to the top of my helix. There are seven holes in total. I might get two more in the helix, I’m not sure. These last two hurt like the dickens!
Today, doing as I’m supposed to do, I went to the drug store to pick up some saline to clean the piercings. Unfortunately I picked up lens solution, not saline solution. I have to return it and get the saline. I feel somewhat stupid about picking that.
The landlords are coming into town on Tuesday so we’ve started trying to get the house less messy. We’re still going through stuff and getting rid of things we don’t want. That always creates mess. I swept up my area and the small foyer of the bedrooms and bathroom. Now to sweep the rest of the house. My back doesn’t like doing that but it has to be done. I’ll continue on and sweep up the kitchen and get the floor washed (at least where there’s obvious stuff on the floor so it looks clean).
I’ve been looking at houses around town. When Dad’s will is completed with probate and the taxes are all filed, his estate will be distributed. Probate shouldn’t take too long as he only had the house for property. When that comes through then Bran and I are going to be looking for a house, probably come next summer. I know it’s pointless to look right now if we won’t actually be looking to buy until next year, but I can’t help it. I want to stop being a tenant so very much. I’m tired of the limited space we have. I’m tired of our stupid kitchen (who puts a 4′ X 5′ island in a kitchen that’s hardly 10′ square?) and not being able to get around in it conveniently. I’m tired of having not storage space and having shit in the bedrooms that should be in a pantry or basement. I’m tired of not being able to do what I want in my own space.
Apparently the supply of jewelry at the Fringe Festival (a 10 day event with independent plays, music performances, street performances, psychics and craft sales galore) on Broadway Avenue this year is creating a buyers market. I haven’t heard from Bran yet, but as of this morning only one pair of earrings had been sold. I have a feeling that mine is the only nickel free stuff though.
I spent yesterday rather productively. I went into work at 1130 or so to get the month end report done. It needs to be handed in on Tuesday. My boss could’ve done it, but he prefers that the person who knows what they’re doing take care of it. I was ok with that. I ate lunch and then phoned Bran to come get me.
We went off to Michael’s to find some earring nuts (those backs put on studs and hooks to prevent them from falling out of the holes). The place was rather crowded. I didn’t like that much. I liked it even less when I couldn’t get up to see the rack of findings. That got even more less desirable when I encountered a woman wearing enough perfume to kill flies at 50 paces. What is that all about? Do people have no sense of smell? If they don’t they should be outlawed from wearing scents. Anyway, it was a fruitless trip.
I worked to make jewelry on Thursday to increase the supplies for the Fringe but didn’t do anything on Friday. Today I made two bracelets. They’re rather pretty. When the Fringe is over, I’ll start taking photos again to get some up on my Etsy store. I’ll also be working on advertising on other sites to get buyers.
Today I set up the etagiere I took from Dad’s. It didn’t fit where I hoped it would on my bedside table. It does, however, fit on my end table on the living room. I now have multiple shelves holding my beading, tissues, pills and other junk that crowded my table.
I went to Panda Hall and Rings and Things and made orders. I got earring nuts, various tools I need, wire, and beads. I think I spent around $450 or so on supplies. Oh, I also bought a wire working book about the basics. The wire I ordered is surgical grade stainless steel.
On a more disappointing note, last night I ordered yummy Chinese food. I got deep fried shrimp (colour me having had a craving) and tofu and vegetables in sate sauce. That’s not the disappointing part. The disappointing part is the whole thing falling off my work table and leaking sauce all over the floor. The food stayed in the container as the lid had still been on it, but damn!
Boy approves of my movie choices today. First was The Cheap Detective which he missed because he was entertaining a friend. the second was The Incredibles, third was Interview with a Vampire, fourth was Catwoman (yes, the bad Halle Barry version) and now Casablanca is playing as I type this entry.
We had a discovery when we got home on Wednesday. Because of all the rain we’ve been having the ground has been saturated. The last good storm we had about 12 days ago caused water to leech through the concrete and infiltrate our basement. The tenant in the suite down there didn’t say anything until his floor was getting wet. By that time it was too late, damage had been done. Had he notified the landlord when he noticed water the first time a sump pump could have been put into a hole and the water pumped out through the sewer system. Now we have a small issue with black mould.
The downstairs tenant has to move out. His suite is contaminated. Since black mould is highly toxic (or produces toxins, I’m not exactly sure) he has to leave. The stuff we have downstairs is also contaminated and will have to be cleaned. We may have to move as well depending on the results of the tests conducted that evening in our suite. Upstairs has also been affected, but it’s not known how much. One advantage we have is that we rarely use the rear door and did laundry over a week ago, before the bloom of black mould (hopefully). We don’t have forced air heating so that prevents fast spread of the mould. The symptoms of poisoning from black mould are heart burn (or increasing heart burn), sleeping a lot, and a few other things that we suffer from all the time anyway – and did before we moved in here – so which came first, right?
Anyway, the tests done will determine whether or not we can stay here. Cross your toes would you please? I don’t want to move before we move into a house we buy after the will is completed in probate.
Speaking of buying houses, I’ve been looking through the real estate listings for Saskatoon. I’ve found several areas that are affordable to us, up to $300,000. Some are a little bit more than that but we’d not want to spend much more. I want a house that we don’t have to do a lot of altering to. This means I’m looking for hardwood floors (or laminate) throughout the house, a good, high wooden privacy fence, a well functioning kitchen, and a basement that has adequate windows for egress. This means it’s most likely to be a split level house. Central air, though not a requirement, would be a definite bonus. At any rate, it was entertaining and kept me amused for several hours. I even looked at the areas we’d not likely buy in unless desperate.
That’s about it. I’m looking forward to the new supplies coming in.
We got home in the late afternoon today. We tucked Dutchess in Boy’s room and he and Bran unloaded the car. Then we found out that the lower floor (basement level) has been contaminated with black mould. That’s nasty stuff. The tenant in the basement will be moving out. That doesn’t break my heart any.
However, if the contamination has moved up into our suite we will have to move. We’re hoping that the contamination isn’t significant enough for us to have to move. We didn’t do laundry ever week and we very rarely used the back entrance. It just wasn’t convenient.
The upstairs neighbours, however, have been more affected, but they use the back entrance (which is open to the basement) all the time and the woman is always up and down the stairs.
I don’t want to have to move. I’m not ready. I don’t want to have to move twice. We have some stuff stored in the basement that is likely contaminated. It should be easy to clean it all though. Except for the cardboard boxes we have down there, the ones the HD televisions came in.
For now we’ll have to do laundry in a laundromat. As much of a pain as that is, it does mean that laundry will be a 2 – 3 hour ordeal rather than an entire day.
Tomorrow the Fringe Festival starts on Broadway. Bran will be selling my jewelry as a co-busker with our friend who makes wire wrapped crystal pendants at Infinite Spirit. If you’re in Saskatoon, drop by and see them.
Time for me to get back to unpacking the bedroom so I can get some sleep later.
I would totally live in this house. Though I would make a few changes, like having a real sink, furniture that didn’t fall apart and have a live cat…but otherwise I wouldn’t change a thing.
Ok, so there wasn’t any wackiness today. However, I adore alliteration.
Bran decided not to go to school today, so I got a ride to class. Today’s class was a lively discussion between me, the prof and a grad student. It was all about James’s view of religion, science, and the way he managed to sneak in a whole lot of dissing to his audience without seeming to do so. It was really quite amusing in many ways. It was also cool that the things in the book that I’d marked as being important or worthy of at least note, were the same things that the prof noted. I also made a really cool point about the disingenuous lengths he went to in an attempt to make religious rapture of those who are considered sane and the religious rapture of those who are considered insane.
It was cool. Before next class I have to read about a presenter who’s coming to talk to our class, read the introduction of his latest paper and then read the first 44 pages of the Heideger work. From what I’ve gleaned from the grad student, it’s going to be a difficult read, especially when compared to James.
I couldn’t call Bran in the Agriculture building. In fact, I couldn’t make a connection until I was nearly at 100 feet from the building. I guess that’s what happens when one is surrounded by metal. I thought that it was that the charge on my phone is low, but I had been able to take pictures when it was that low, so I knew it should work. Eventually I connected with him to come and get me.
From there we went directly to the polling station and voted. We were enumerated twice so we weren’t sure of which poll we should go to. It was all straightened out and we marked our X. So it’s official. We have exercised our franchise. We have fulfilled our responsibility as citizens of Canada and Saskatchewan. Now we can bitch and moan about whoever gets into the Legislature as the winner (though I do hope the NDP win).
Last night Boy and I worked our heinies off and got all the dishes done. So after I picked up Bran at 11 after he’d done the Safewalk thing, he got to make his supper-snack in a clean kitchen without concern about the dirty dishes being in the way.
Tonight supper going to be pasta and tomato sauce. It’s just a basic sauce…onions, garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste and spices. I proposed putting meso into the sauce. Bran was not caring one way or the other, but Boy didn’t want it. So I opened the package to put into a sealable container and taste it, just to see if it would taste like it would match. Boy was right. It had the flavour of soy sauce. It’ll make a nice soup with my squash (with ginger), but it wouldn’t go good with the pasta sauce. I guess there’s a reason that Marco Polo left that in China when he brought pasta back to Italy.
Tomorrow is my theory class and then volunteering at the Pride Centre. I asked Bran to make sure that there was enough pasta for me to make up a leftover container for my lunch tomorrow. Since tomorrow is the hearing to determine whether our old landlord is entitled to having a hearing (he claims he didn’t get the notice of the last hearing and that’s why he missed it – apparently he doesn’t know how to use a telephone). I hope that he doesn’t get anywhere with it and is ordered to pay back our damage deposit. This means that Bran may miss his class and might not need to have a leftover container made up for him. He probably will because he volunteers after me in the afternoon and it’s probably going to be easier to just go to the university than to go home after the hearing.
I’ve got Thunderbird working ever so happily. I don’t know what I’d done wrong with one of my profiles last night but it wouldn’t pick up mail from the server. It kept saying that the password was rejected and that the server wasn’t available to me. This was instead of just asking me to input a working password. So I deleted the profiles for Thunderbird and started over. That worked. Now I have to go and download all the extensions and themes I want to make it totally the way I want it.
Can you say, “Yay”? Of course you can. I’m very happy to have a mail client that I’m happy with.
That’s about it. I should probably clip my fingernails. I’m beginning to type using the tips of my fingernails rather than the pads of my fingertips. Isn’t that exciting? Ya, I knew you’d think so too.
I’m not sure that I have a cold. My throat is sore, but I’m not producing the usual excess amount of snot that normally accompanies a cold. I am, however, tired and grumpy. It seems more and more like the infection under my tooth has spread. It’s a good thing I have a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday morning. So while I reassess my medications I can talk to my doctor about getting an antibiotic.
Bran filled in for my volunteer time today. I picked up a veggie burrito at the Arts Buff. I’m not sure that I’d want to get one like that again. There wasn’t much in the way of veggies in it and they were excessively generous with the refried beans. That and the salsa was way too hot for me. I’m such a wimp. I gave it to Bran. It’s too bad that I’m not eating meat. STM had teryaki chicken breast on a bun and fries as their special. It did look good though.
I came home and set up the DVD recorder and spent some time trying to get things ready for tonight’s recording. I’ve already recorded (I keep wanting to say “taped” but it’s not a tape) Cold Case Files. Next to be recorded is First 48 when it comes on at 7.
Today there was much discussion about Dumbledor being gay. I still go to the space that it really doesn’t matter much. I mean, sure there are adults reading the books and enjoying them and it is important to have a positive gay role model, but the books are about the kids. If a character was going to set a positive role model then why wasn’t one of the kids gay? I mean, why not make Hermoine a lesbian, or Shamus gay? That would make a positive role model. Though a memorable character and definitely quirky in his own way, Dumbledore was a side character. The personal lives of the teachers wasn’t that important to the lives of the kids. Let us not forget, the Harry Potter series were books written for children about children. I mean, what was Dumbledore supposed to do, get caught doing the horizontal samba with Hagrid?
Enough of that. There was a story in this month’s Perspectives, a local magazine put together locally and focusing on local events and news. There was a really good story about a high school in Moose Jaw (Peacock Highschool) that went pink to battle bullying. This whole pink movement started at a high school in Nova Scotia where a couple of seniors saw an unfortunate Freshie (grade 9) being bullied by a couple of other kids because he was wearing a pink shirt.
Those to seniors went out and bought 50 of pink shirts, emailed friends and asked them to pick up a shirt and wear it the next day. Not only did their friends do it, but they spread the word. The next day, most of the students were wearing pink shirts (“a sea of pink”). It was their way of striking back at the bullies. This has spread across the country, and Peacock High was the latest school to do it. Apparently the kid that was bulled felt a whole lot better seeing that. I love it when kids take action in their own way. No adult would have thought of that. The whole idea was to make the bullies realize that they’re definitely outnumbered.
I’ve got the windows open in the house. Well, not all the windows. Three of them. One in the livingroom, one in the kitchen and the one in our bedroom. It’s cool outside and I’ve been one very hot potato all day today. When I got home the house was overly warm, humid and somewhat stale. So I got the screens out of the closet and opened up. It was heavenly. I put my little fan in the window at front and aimed it directly at me and was immediately cooled down. Yay! for being cool.
They’re having the semi-annual poster sale at the university in upper Place. Bran picked up three pictures, one of the Dalai Lama, one of Che Guevera and one of Bob Marley. Those are a few of his heroes. He asked me what I thought of the lineup (to keep them safely out of the way, he put them over the doorway to the dining room) and after thinking a little bit, I said that they were “masculine”. He protested that they didn’t have a picture of Gloria Steinem. I’m sure they’d sell well but I guess that few people, especially marketers, that women can be held to the same good regard as men. Nertz.
There’s something that I’ve been trying to remember to write, but for the life of me, I don’t know what it is. I can’t remember. Damn. Too bad the bupropion hasn’t improved my memory any. I could use some help with that.
I got the new LL Bean catalog today. Well, technically I didn’t. It was delivered to a tenant that lived here before the tenants before us. However, since they’re long gone, I took ownership of it. I’ve found some perfect items for me and one for a certain pregnant someone I know of. However, I don’t have that pregnant someone’s address so sending her something would be somewhat problematic. Am I being too subtle?
Tomorrow is Friday and I was to go and get my teeth cleaned. Since I can’t be sure that whatever is causing my sore throat isn’t contagious, I canceled my appointment. They appreciate my kindness in not wanting to spread my germs around. I’m nice that way.
The saga of the old landlord continues. I think the last I wrote of was that he’d filed to keep the damage deposit and then didn’t show up for the hearing. He claims that he didn’t get the notice of the hearing. Since he was the one who started the process to begin with, one would think that, after not hearing for a week common sense says that you call the agency to find out the status of his claim. he had well over a month to make that simple call (not long distance) and then go and pick up a copy (less than 5 km from his house) of the hearing notice. Anyway, he got a hearing to present evidence of this (since it’s not sent by registered or special delivery to be signed for how does one prove anything?). This hearing was to happen on Monday.
Bran, being the very sweet man he is, wasn’t requiring me to attend the hearing alone, though I was willing to go. He can’t go because the Bishop of the Buddhist churches of Canada (or whatever his title is) is coming to his class to speak. Missing that would be direly detrimental to Bran’s grade in the class. So he called the Rentalsman office and got the hearing delayed by a week. Rockin’! This means that the landlord (who always rents out his side of the duplex each winter) will have new tenants in his house, and will held in town for a week. It will be a satisfactory inconvenience for the old landlord. Anyway, we’re going to contest him getting a hearing about the damage deposit based on the fact that a) he filed after the legislated time limit to make such a claim, and b) he had ample time to phone the Rentalsman office to find out about the hearing. Since he was the one who filed it was his responsibility to make sure that things were attended to. I hope we win.
I went to the dentist today. Not only did I go to the dentist (ranking a 15 on the 1-10 scale of fear), I went by myself. I drove myself to see the dentist. (Pause for well deserved applause) But before we get to that, I’m going to tell you about my early morning escapades. Bran accidentally woke me up at am. He dropped something I think. Anyway, I’d gone to bed around 10 last night because I was exhausted. That sucks because it meant that I couldn’t watch my murder and mayhem reruns that I’d missed because we went out shopping.
I got up to go to the bathroom and then came out into the living room to find that he’d been one very busy man. He moved all the furniture around to the places that I wanted and was just on the tail end of finishing that up. We sat around for a while, then Bran suggested going and getting caffeine. He was thinking of Pepsi. However, I thought of coffee which brought up the concept of going out to Tim Horton’s, which in turn made him want doughnuts. So that’s what we did. Bran put on the coffee and then we got blueberry and apple fritters and honey dip doughnuts.
After we munched, Bran went to bed to have a short nap. He’s going to be one very tired man when he gets home. Boy got up at his appointed time and informed me that he wasn’t feeling well. His stomach was all upset. He made the special note that he couldn’t think of why because he was ahead in most of his classes and there were no exams (which got me suspicious that there was something else that he was wanting to avoid but didn’t say so). So I sent him back to bed. He was ok with not getting any doughnuts, so he must have not been feeling well.
Bran went into school really early today. He drove there and picked up one of the text books that I need and one that he needed. After that I headed home, sat around for a while and then headed across town for my dental appointment.
My teeth hare healthy and in very good shape. Despite not being able to brush my teeth as often as is optimal, they look really good. So, we can all say thank you to Crest for making their spin brushes. Because of using one, I’m able to get my teeth cleaner than a manual brush would in a whole lot less time. This means that I’m less likely to become nauseated and more likely to do a better job cleaning. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the tooth that had been giving me trouble, the one that I was in intense pain because of, is now abscessed. That’s right. There is an infection there that is not really treatable. The infection won’t go away until the material in that is causing the infection is gone. So, in about 4 weeks I’m getting a root canal. She’s also going to replace a filling that needs to be replaced. It’s right next to the other tooth so that’s ok. It’s going to cost around $350 or so, but in the end I’ll have a tooth.
I went to the grocery store after the appointment and picked up some burger buns, tomatoes and a raspberry swirl cake thing for supper. Then it was home. We got some auspicious mail.
In the mail was the notice from the Rentalsman with the final decision of the hearing officer. The ruling is as binding as that of a judge. This means that if we don’t get payment we can file the judgment with the Court of Queen’s Bench and have his wages garnished or else seize enough of his property to repay the debt owed. He has 30 days to appeal, but as with court judgments, he has to find an error of law made by the hearing officer. This means he can’t appeal because he merely doesn’t like the ruling (and filing a day after the closing date to do so and missing the hearing totally aren’t legal errors) he has to prove that the hearing officer did not apply the laws correctly. So, if in 30 days, he hasn’t paid us, then we can go after him (and you can bet your button holes we’re going to do that) for the money. I love that we can make his life miserable for once.
There was also a notice of school fees for Boy and a letter from Dad with a couple of pictures that he took when he was up last weekend. Needless to say I hate the picture of me. I’m fat, though I still look like my aunt Matilda.
I managed to get the Durkheim reading done and wrote up something that, physically, resembles an essay. That’s not to say that it’s any good or remotely addresses the demands of the professor, but I finished it.
I laid down for a time and then got up at 8:15 to phone the doctor’s office to find out what time my appointment was. It turns out that it was at 9 am so I had to do a little bit of hustling to get there on time.
Today was also the day of the damage deposit hearing. The old landlord had put in a demand for some or all of it and the Rentalsman office and hearing for it was today. Because of my appointment I wasn’t able to go with Bran. However, his ex was nice enough to go along and support him through that. Interestingly, the landlord didn’t turn up to the hearing so we won by default. I’m pretty sure the old jerk won’t like discovering that.
Meanwhile I was at the doctor’s office discussing medications. We had a long talk about what my needs are, whether or not it could be bi-polar and other things. I’ll be starting Wellbutrin when the pharmacy is able to get a diagnosis on the prescription. It’s covered by the government health program if it’s prescribed for depression but not for quitting smoking (also known as name is Zyban – generic name of bupropion HCl). We’re going that way with it because the Paxil is still controlling my anxiety issues beautifully. It’s the depression where it’s not working. The Wellbutrin should control the depression. I wonder if it will work. I don’t remember ever not being depressed.
She also sent me off to the vampires for blood tests to check the thyroid levels. She’s doing this because wonky levels also influence mood and also because of the weight I’ve lost. She wants to make sure that things there are all tickety-boo. However, I suspect that the weight loss has more to do with my not eating much (even if it was junk).
She confirmed that my elbow is inflicted with “tennis elbow”. She recommended getting an elbow support and gave me an exercise to do along with dumping large volumes of ibuprofen into my body.
After the appointment I phoned Bran to let him know how things were. He was getting ready to go to the hearing-that-didn’t-happen. I went to the lab for the blood letting, then to the drug store to get the script. That’s when I found out about the store needing a diagnosis for the drug plan. Since the script wasn’t ready, and probably wasn’t going to be ready until either tonight sometime or tomorrow, I went to the Co-Op to fill up the gas tank and then go home.
I wasn’t home long when Bran got there and let me know about the hearing. I asked him if he would be willing to take my essay to my professor for me. Being the sweet and supportive wonderful man that he is, he did so. This freed me up to go to bed and get some much needed sleep, which is exactly what I did. I was asleep before he left the house.
I was woken by the phone. It was Boy letting Bran know that he was coming home instead of going to a friend’s house. That’s when I found out that Bran fell asleep on the couch. We did some snuggle-chatting for a while and then we got up so that I could start prepping veggies for tonight’s supper. We’re going to do a stir-fry of veggies and tofu-chicken. It’s going to be interesting because the stir-fry is going to have the usual Chinese type flavouring and the fake meat has a Mediterranean spicing on it.
Neither Bran nor I feel like cooking so we’re going to do it together. It’s time to go start things. So I’m going to do that, eat and then read other people’s blogs while I crochet and watch murder and mayhem on the TV.
Alas, I won’t be sleeping for a while yet. I haven’t been to bed yet. I’ve been awake since 6:30 pm yesterday. Why, you ask? Well, it has a lot to do with me trying to change my hours around, the landlord coming to look at the work that needs to be done, doing work that needs to be done, having to go to the university and dropping the books that I borrowed back to Tamara’s House but not in that order.
We went to Tamara’s House first. I walked in and encountered Karen, the director. We had a longish chat about how things were going for the two of us. She wants me to let them know when I’m going to convocate so that they can put it in the newsletter. She’s about 1/2 way through her PhD program.
Then it was on to the university to return 3 text books for resale. That netted us nearly $100. I liked that. However, the dancing I did while getting the buy-back done is very different from the way I’ll be acting when I buy the $375 or so worth of texts for my classes this fall.
After we finished that, we went to the Dollar Store. I wanted to get some pasta bowls for us. I like the size of them, and they’ll work well with many of the things we cook like stews, curry with rice, chili with rice and so on.
Tonight’s supper is going to be the curried mung beans that I made yesterday. Sitting in the fridge overnight helped to soften them up so that we don’t have to worry about cracking any teeth. This morning, while Bran and I were waiting for the landlord to turn up (they said they’d be here between 8 and 9 – the other reason that it wasn’t worth going to bed last night and Bran needed my moral support) I went off to the Co-Op and picked up some tomatoes, vegetable bullion, some bagels, and Bengal Spice tea. I picked up the tea because we have such trouble finding them and we tend to buy them when I see them. Now Bran has 3 extra boxes of tea.
When I got home, after the chatting with the landlord finished, I opened one of the tomato cans and added them to the beans. Then I added a couple of bullion blocks and some extra water to the (I remember the last item I got, plain yogurt!) beans and turned on the heat to cook them in. I didn’t have to cook them long to make sure the bullion is dissolved. Now it’s macerating.
I have peeled and shredded a couple of home-grown cukes that were given to Bran the other night. That’s in the fridge in a screen sieve to allow the water to drain off. The yogurt is in another screen sieve and cheese cloth to drain the extra water out of it as well. It’s no-fat yogurt, so there’s a fair bit of water in there. When they’re done, or when I have to make supper, whichever comes first, I’ll mix them together, add some shredded garlic and we’ll have some tzatziki to have with the rice and curried beans. Exciting, yes?
I’m going to be waking Bran up in 10 minutes. I wasn’t going to nap, but I’m running out of steam very quickly as I type this. I’m trying to keep my brain busy by watching murder and mayhem and typing this out, but it’s failing.
Speaking of brains… I’ve started to play “Brain Age” on Boy’s DS. So far I’ve pushed my mental age from 65 years old (20 years old is the optimum according to the developers) to 59 and have improved my time with both math skills and reading aloud. I’m even better with the number remembering, where numbers are put into a specific pattern but in random order. It’s up to you to remember which position they occupy and in ascending order. There was one more…oh, right, the syllable counting game. I did abysmally with that one. I’m not going to test myself today because I’m not going to have enough sleep to be able to process anything well. Even now I’m having trouble thinking and remembering things.
That’s about it. Our toilet is no longer leaking into the downstairs neighbour’s suite and the living room is beginning to look like a living room.
