mousme: An RCMP officer in ceremonial uniform swinging around a horizontal bar. (Maintain the Right)
Someone on Facebook posted earlier today that the wealthy (the post said billionaires, but I'm willing to bet other ultra-wealthy people whose net work is "only" in the tens or hundreds of millions also profit this way) profit off of stock market volatility, and honestly, that tracks as the youths are saying these days. (Actually, I'm not sure the youths are using that expression either, I might be a few years out of date on that one too). Trump declares tariffs, the markets tank, wealthy people buy up stock at low prices. The next day Trump declares no more tariffs, the markets pick up, the wealthy have now made a tidy profit.

Barf.

The weather also doesn't know what to do with itself, which is fairly typical for the beginning of March. We've had snow, freezing rain, rain, clear blue skies, warm weather and freezing weather all within less than 26 hours. It's been changing its mind more than Trump has, and that's saying something! Today when I tried to go to work for the early shift my entire car was frozen shut, and the windshield cover I use on my car had actually frozen closed over the side mirrors (it has drawstrings that close around the side mirrors that are great 99% of the time because it keeps the cover from blowing around), and it took forever to get it off as well as chip away enough ice to actually get in my car in order to get my scraper out. What a shitshow. Luckily this is a fairly rare weather coincidence, so hopefully I won't have to deal with it anymore this year, or at least only a handful of times before spring sets in.

In politics-adjacent news, I've been having conflicting feelings about continuing to post on Dreamwidth and LiveJournal. LJ is, of course, owned by Russians, and DW has all its information hosted in the USA, which makes me worry a little about what's going to happen to all of the posts and data if more draconian laws come into play. I'm trying to divest as much from anything US-related as possible, and that is probably going to include a lot of my online activities.

I'm still trying to figure out how to divest from social media companies that are overwhelmingly American without sacrificing my connections with friends (my family is mostly not online) and my connection to alternative news sources and help networks. I know so many people online who are wonderful and amazing whom I consider close friends even though I've never met a lot of them in person, and I have a lot of IRL friends who now live far away from me and with whom I basically only have contact online. I don't think Canada HAS a social media platform to speak of. Right now I have accounts on a number of platforms: Discord (not social media exactly, but close), Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok. All but the latter are owned by the US, and the latter is great in some ways and problematic AF in others.

Not for the first time I kind of wish I had learned how to program beyond the basic html shit I learned specifically for LJ back in 2002. ;) I'd be fine with trying to create my own social media platform, even if it was kind of small and janky if it means I could keep all my friends in my pocket like before but without supporting US corporations or sacrificing my data to shitty actors. I suppose I could always try to learn to program an app in my copious amounts of spare time. To be fair, I do have spare time, I am just bad at using it efficiently.

I have always wanted to be one of those highly organized, highly efficient people to whom others look and say "My God, I don't know how she manages it all!" However, I have to be content with people side-eyeing me and probably saying things like "It's honestly amazing she manages to tie her shoes on a regular basis." (Joke's on them, 3/4 of my shoes are slip-ons!) I have a fair number of "extra" hours in the week, but those usually get frittered away either in decision paralysis or general task initiation paralysis, or just because I can't force myself out of bed early on the weekends anymore because I'm never not tired. (My sleep test is in eight days and I am way too excited about it!)

In related news, I've started reading a new book which looks super promising. It's called Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next), and so far it has done an excellent job of defining mutual aid, what is is and what it isn't. The next part of the book is meant to have practical advice on how to start mutual aid or at least get involved, and I am excited to get into it. As usual, my brain isn't letting me read particularly quickly, so I may run out of time before the book has to go back to the library. That being said, if I like the book enough, I may buy myself a copy for future reference.

Okay, time to put this disjointed post out of its misery. Tomorrow I am off to visit my parents and I don't know how late I'll be back home, but hopefully I will be home in time to not break my posting streak. See you on the flip side, friends!
mousme: A picture of Wol from Winnie the Pooh, holding a note that reads "Gon Out. Backson. Bizy. Backson." (Back Soon)
I haven't even had that busy a day, but I am super tired.

Work is doing a weird thing this week where we're getting half-days to work from home, and it's more annoying than anything else. Finding parking at noon in an already busy building is a hell of an exercise in frustration. They're doing it out of a desire to make things a bit more fair because several people have afternoon courses this week, and rather than simply letting them work from home the whole time and forcing the rest of us to come in the full five days, which is admittedly shitty, they're doing this weird compromise instead. I appreciate the intent, at the very least, because I would have been a little salty about these people getting a full WFH week AGAIN (they had one last month too, and it's starting to feel a little old to constantly be the person who has to come in every single day while they get to be at home all cozy).

We're having another snowstorm that's going to last until at least Thursday, and so traffic was terrible getting home this evening. I think that's part of why I'm tired. Spending an hour and ten minutes in traffic instead of the usual half hour was just life draining.

KK was out for dinner with a friend this evening, so I got the house to myself. I cleaned out the fridge a little and ate some of the leftovers that KK won't touch, and got the dogs organized for bed without too much trouble, and since then I've been slowly settling into bed. As soon as I've finished this post I will be turning in for the night. I am working the early shift tomorrow, which means I have to be up at 5am in order to be at work on time. Blech.

I've been doing pretty well lately about getting to bed on time, but that hasn't actually helped me with feeling any less tired, alas. My sleep test is scheduled in ten days' time, though, and I am practically counting down the hours until it happens. I know I won't get an answer right away, but just getting it done will be a step in the right direction. I really, REALLY want to know if there's a relatively simple fix for how tired I am all the fucking time.
mousme: A text icon, dark green text on pale green, that reads There is no normal life. There's just life. (No Normal Life)
One thing you don't grasp as a child is that becoming an adult essentially means giving up a huge chunk of your free time. Until I moved out on my own, I essentially had two adults who did a lot of stuff for me without my really noticing. Don't get me wrong, I was expected to help around the house and contribute to the overall functioning of our household, but that's very much not the same as having to do it all myself on top of holding down a full-time job.

This is my roundabout way of complaining that basically every single day next week is taken up by commitments, even though I have the whole week "off" work. I am deeply annoyed by the fact that I won't have any downtime at all until I have to go back to work the following Monday. It's very rude, is what it is, and honestly I am tired just thinking about it.

The good news is that, much to my surprise, KK agreed to move her in-office shift from Monday to Tuesday, so tomorrow I shall zip to Montreal with the Hubris Shawl and a couple of other things I got for my mother, specifically some new KN95 masks for her to try out and a pulse oximeter. I have been worried for quite some time that my mother will resist seeking medical attention when she needs it because she tends to dismiss any symptoms as minor or unimportant, and I'm hoping having an objective measure will help her make that determination. The one I got has good reviews and wasn't super expensive, and I can show her at what number she should definitely seek medical care. Her compromised lung function already puts her at considerable risk, so also knowing when *not* to go to the hospital is also a useful skill to acquire.

The plan is to leave around 8am, which will put me in Montreal by about 11am, especially given the current meteorological conditions, and then leave maybe around 7pm to avoid rush hour traffic and the aforementioned meteorological conditions, which are pretty terrible right now. It didn't snow much overnight, much to my relief, but it has been snowing steadily all day while I've been at the office, so I fully expect the roads to be an absolute nightmare for the next couple of days until the city can get them cleared properly. Driving in was pretty gnarly despite the relative paucity of snow, because the ploughs weren't out yet. Logistically it makes sense. The plough drivers will likely be doing 16 hour stints and desperately need sleep, so it makes more sense to send them out once a lot more snow has fallen so as to maximize the effect of the ploughing, rather than having them scrape two centimeters at a time off the roads and then have to go off shift just as the storm hits its peak. 

Speaking of ploughs, I'm not at all convinced my property management folks will have gotten around to my driveway by the time I get home tonight, so I am bracing for having to pull out my shovel and clear myself a space in there. My immediate neighbours, who share the driveway with me, drove away on Thursday and I haven't seen their car nor any sign it has come back to the driveway since that day. I'm not sure if they just decided to park it elsewhere until the snow was completely removed, or if they just went on a little trip together that happened to coincide with the winter storm.

In the meantime, I have reached out to a local professional organizer. I am 100% fed up with the state of the house, and I can't do it on my own. KK is not going to be of any help for a variety of reasons, so I'm hoping the lady I emailed with today will not be faint of heart and will help me manage within the parameters of the current state of the house. I'm willing to purge more of my stuff to make room, but KK is not going to want to part with any of hers, so I have to figure out storage solutions for all of that in a way that will allow me to keep functioning

My main hope is to start with the garage and turn that into a more functional storage space than it currently is, then turn my attention to the main floor and the basement. I am reasonably confident I can tackle my bedroom on my own, but if that turns out to also require a helping hand, I can always avail myself of the services again. Of course, we might not start with the garage simply because it's been so damned cold lately, and my garage is unheated, so that might have to wait for more clement weather. I'd much rather do the garage first so that it can serve as a staging/storage area, but needs must, I guess. We could always start in the basement or the kitchen. The kitchen is the most in need of some kind of organizing, but we have «l'embarras du choix» as they say. 

I'm just over halfway through my last weekend shift at work. Another five hours and I can GTFO. Pray for good road conditions, friends!

mousme: A text icon, white text on green, that reads Zathras trained in crisis management (Crisis Management)
I've been at work for an hour but today has lasted eighteen million years or so.

I got to bed shortly before 2:00, but since I had a 9:00 appointment at the bariatric clinic and I knew that sometimes traffic and parking can be dicey, I got up at 7:00 in order to leave at 7:45, with a view to arriving around 8:30. Oh boy, did THAT not turn out the way I planned. It was snowing, you see. "Snow, Phnee?" you may ask. "Surely in Canada you are all accustomed to snowfall and can adjust accordingly?" To which I'd answer: "You'd be surprised, and don't call me Shirley!"

For some reason, there were no snow ploughs to be seen anywhere, including the highways. I counted no fewer than five vehicular collisions on my way to my appointment, and traffic had slowed to a crawl even on the side streets near my house. The trip that usually takes me 30 minutes when traffic is clear took an hour and a half, and therefore I arrived in the parking lot already 10 minutes late for my appointment. Then the parking machine stubbornly refused any form of payment card that I offered, and since it also didn't accept cash, I gave it up as a bad job and went in hoping that I wouldn't get towed or ticketed (which, luckily, I didn't). Then the receptionist ignored me in favour of finishing up the world's longest phone call, in which the patient on the other end was asking questions that were very obviously not urgent, and since by then I was 20 minutes late (I had called ahead twice to advise them of the situation) I was pretty stressed out, and it took all my self-control to remain polite and not come off as aggressive/impolite/entitled/whatever in any way, because that's a good way to get yourself thrown out of a medical practice these days. But I knew the nurse practitioner was waiting, and she couldn't know that the reason I was extra late was just because the receptionist wouldn't put a phone call on hold for one minute.

The appointment itself went well. I will put a few more details behind a cut, so that anyone who doesn't want to read about weight, deliberate weight loss and medical interventions for said weight loss can skip that part. I will not be discussing specific numbers.

Discussion of weight, weight-loss, and medical weight-loss procedures behind the cut! )

Okay, onto other stuff that happened with my day that's not weight-related!

First off, I finally got my compost worms! I sent a follow-up email yesterday, got a reply from the owner of the operation referring me to an employee, and the employee answered my email at, like midnight, which is wild to me. Go to bed, people, I don't expect service 24/7 for worms, IT'S FINE. Anyway, I called her after my appointment and arranged to drive out to what kind of felt like the middle of nowhere to pick up said worms. I took them home tucked inside my coat, because she said they'd gotten cold and it would be best to get them settled quickly. Since I had a 40 minute drive in bad weather ahead, I figured human body heat would be just the ticket, and I wasn't wrong. They were in a glass jar, in case you somehow imagined that I just had pocketfuls of worms or something. :P 

I got home without incident, caught KK up on all the happenings, got the worms situated in their new home, and promptly crashed out for a one-hour cat nap that was interrupted on multiple occasions by my beloved hounds baying loudly at the neighbours, the squirrels, the Amazon delivery person, and the lovely people who came to shovel our walkway. The dogs have Strict Opinions about anyone or anything coming too close to their house, you see, and those opinions are invariably loud and shrill. I love my dogs, they are a delight.

After that I had just enough time to shove my lunch into my bag and head to work. I left early just in case the road conditions were still terrible, but I was pleasantly surprised and arrived early. My coworker took advantage of my arrival to also leave early, meaning I'm working voluntary OT today for about 20 minutes, but whatever. What was more annoying was that he somehow managed to unplug the headset adapter while he was working. I'm one of the few people here who uses a headset, because between the back injury and the hearing loss, I find I can work much better with it. However, people keep accidentally or deliberately unplugging the adapters in new and creative ways, and, like today, I don't always notice right away. So of course my first call was for a possible IED (they're always false alarms but I have to treat each one as if it was real), and the headset wasn't working and my coworker had shut down the computer instead of restarting it, so I was on the back foot for at least 10 minutes until I got all the technical issues sorted out, which made me very grumpy indeed.

Since then things have calmed down, enough for me to type out this post, so I can't complain too hard. I remembered to bring my knitting tonight, and I'm hoping that I might actually be able to finish the Hubris Shawl, if not tonight then maybe tomorrow. Maybe. We shall see.

I think that's enough for now. See you on the flip side!
mousme: A text icon in pale blue that reads Winter is Coming (Winter is Coming)
 Nonetheless, I got stuff done today! Class let out very early, so I ended up going and doing some grocery shopping before I came home. It started snowing nearly 15 hours after the predicted time, but it's nonetheless snowing, and we're expecting anywhere from 10-15cm before the end of it. I've been checking outside the window, and the snow is falling much more sparsely than I would have thought. Maybe I won't have to shovel as much as I originally thought I would, which would be very nice indeed. I do like winter a lot, but I'm not a huge fan of shovelling snow.

Groceries aside, I've been trying to get some studying done today, since I got home so early. I've already done some revising of my Romanian lessons on Duolingo, and next up will be reading a bunch of documentation for tomorrow's class. I don't particularly feel like it, as the material is drier than the Sahara, but it's necessary nonetheless. The course itself is both very simple and rather difficult for me to understand: I think it assumes a basic level of knowledge that I simply don't possess, which is making it harder for me to follow. I'm hoping that going through extra course material tonight will give me a better grasp of the subject-matter.

I haven't said much on here about the political bullshit fest going on south of the border, not because I don't care, but because there's so much of it that it feels overwhelming to even scratch at the surface here on LJ. Suffice it to say that every time I open Twitter, it's to discover new lies from the Trump administration, or more examples of white people being terrible even when they "mean well." The reaction of white women in particular to the perfectly valid criticism from other members of the feminist movement (disabled women, trans women, native women, women of colour, etc.) is incredibly disheartening. It often feels like the message that's being sent is that anything is acceptable so long as cishet able-bodied white women aren't made to feel too uncomfortable.

There's been a lot of congratulatory back-patting about how the Women's March went off without a hint of violence (not exactly true, anyway), as if that's a virtue of the marchers and not a direct result of how white people are simply policed differently than people of colour. The police are reluctant to turn the pepper spray and rubber bullets on middle-class white moms, that's the long and the short of it. That's the only reason things didn't turn ugly. Women of colour have been at the forefront of the battles for justice forever, and white women have not returned the favour, only showing up when they themselves felt threatened. Like with a lot of these situations, I think it bothers me more because fifteen years ago I might have been one of these white women, but I was able to learn (and continue to learn, every time I fuck up), and it infuriates me when people just like me stick their fingers in their ears and refuse to listen. Surely white fragility can't be that hard to let go of? If I can refrain from shrieking about "not all white women," then surely all these other women can too? *hands*

Anyway, I have no good answer for any of it. I just know that my fellow white people and I are capable of doing better, and we need to try a lot damned harder to achieve it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have 100 pages or so of technical manuals to study. XD


mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Boing)
I'm feeling a bit more energetic these days. Light and energy. )

Gardening, fencing and asphalt. )

Paperwork. Blech. And also the prospect of selling books. )

So that's about it for now. I have other thoughts about time and procrastination and time management, but they're all still pretty rough, and not ready to be written down.

I'm feeling pretty optimistic about summer. Maybe it's the extra sunlight, maybe not, but I'm not complaining. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather and to getting outside more.
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Dream the World)
I am a little surprised at how many dreams I'm managing to remember of late.

In this one I had arrived at work and was just starting my shift. In my dream, starting my shift meant going outside the RCMP building and making sure the weeds didn't take over the place. I was still a dispatcher, but apparently weeding was part of the deal. I'm guessing that yesterday's yard work was lodged somewhere in my subsconsious. Anyway, the weeds were plentiful, and I was very worried that I hadn't already done a better job of keeping them at bay. I thought it might have something to do with the arrival of spring, since they were springing up all over the place, but I kept thinking that I should have done a better job during my last shift, even though there hadn't really been enough time to get all the weeds in the short time I was allotted before I began my shift (about half an hour in the dream, if memory serves), since the grounds at work are quite vast.

I wasn't able to get it all done then, either, but it was time to head back in, so I hurried into the building and, for some reason I now don't recall, went into a small conference room. Perhaps I was fetching something, or had to do something in the room prior to my shift, I don't remember. Anyway, the next thing I knew people were pouring into the room. I recognised them all as being from the drug enforcement section, and realised that I was inadvertently crashing an important meeting. There was a beautiful young woman there with very long brown hair and big blue eyes, and I recognised her immediately as the girlfriend (or maybe daughter?) of an important mafia boss, and that's when I knew that she must be there to give testimony. It explained why there were so many officers and why everything was being kept hush-hush. She was being kept in witsec in return for her to turn state's evidence, as they say in the U.S.

For some reason I couldn't figure out, she took a shine to me and insisted I sit next to her. I knew her life was in grave danger just by being there, and sure enough when I turned around I caught sight of a sniper on the roof of a building farther down the street. Amusingly enough, it was Eliot from the TV show Leverage. In the dream I apparently knew him well enough that we were friends of a sort, or at least had been. I remember being very upset at the thought that he'd apparently gone back to being a thug-for-hire. I didn't want the girl I was with to die, so I waved and smiled at him and sat directly beside her, so that he wouldn't have a shot unless he went through me first, and I was convinced that our relationship was strong enough that he wouldn't take that shot. (I'm not 100% sure, but I think briefly in the dream I either thought I was Parker, also from Leverage, and I might have transformed into her for a little while, to capitalise on their bond in the show).

In the end, we got through the interview with no bloodshed, and the officers were able to take the girl back into witsec without incident. There was a strange little interlude in my dream, then, in which I shifted into spectator mode. This actually happens a lot to me in dreams, when I seem to step outside what's happening and just watch what's going on. Sometimes I'm watching myself, but more often than not it's like watching a very surreal movie. It felt like an extra scene from Leverage, but it was taking place right after what had just happened in my dream. Parker was there (perhaps I had been her after all, and was now myself again?), and she'd gone to find Eliot, and gave him a very impassioned speech about coming back to the side of the good. She reminded him of everything they'd done, all the progress they'd made, all the lives they'd improved, and I am pretty sure that by the end of the scene they had reconciled and Eliot had given up his thug-for-hire ways for good. So it was a happy ending for them.

By then, though, I was nearly five hours late for my own work shift. I sprinted down the hall and arrived at my office, where I couldn't see anyone. There were beautiful green plants hanging everywhere, though, as well as lined up on trolleys in the hallway just outside. My office was apparently in the midst of a big campaign to improve employees' lives through plants and flowers. The whole office smelled fragrant and green, and I couldn't help but feel my spirits lift when I walked in. I knew that not only would I be allowed to have plants at my desk, but that I'd be encouraged to take more plants home, which was great. I kept thinking that this would never have happened at my old posting, and was such a vast improvement over my previous job, and that I was very lucky to have such a great job now.

Still, I had to account for my tardiness. I ran directly to my supervisor's office to explain what had happened. He seemed pleased to see me, and had wondered why I was late. I explained that I'd actually arrived at work early for my shift, but that I'd been delayed by circumstances outside of my control. He seemed pretty sympathetic overall, since he apparently knew about the witness meant to give testimony, but I lost him when I told him that Eliot had been the sniper on the roof. I recall saying: "But wait—it gets better!" because I was legitimately excited about Eliot being there, but I could tell my boss couldn't quite bring himself to believe me. Nonetheless, he decided that I didn't deserve to be sanctioned, and sent me back to my desk to get to work.

And that's all I remember of that.

Today there is rain in the forecast, which means yard work will not be happening, alas. I should have gotten up at 6:00, but I was lazy and slept until 7:30, so that means I couldn't get an early start on the yard work at all. Since there's mostly rain forecast all week it's not the end of the world, as my main goal was to get the yard in good enough shape for Bean to play in it. If it's raining he won't be able to play outside anyway.

Instead I shall try to organise some of my stuff today. The back and forth from Ottawa means I rarely stop and go through my things, and so my "packing" has become increasingly haphazard over the months. So today I'm going to cull my things and try to get everything back down to manageable levels of bags.
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Winter Is Coming)
I'm serious. They've been preparing for a winter that hasn't arrived in well over five books. If they were in Canada, they'd be all set. Plus, we have snowblowers. They'd be amazed.

I, however, fan of winter though I am, am 2000% done. There's a winter storm warning for Cornwall, Lancaster, and western Quebec for later today. Guess what day it is for me? If you guessed COMMUTE DAY, you win a prize! It's a crappy prize comprised mostly of slush, black ice and utter frustration, but whatever.

No matter which way I look at it, today is going to suck. If I stay here in Ottawa and sleep until early afternoon, I'll have to drive home through the worst of it. If I leave now(ish), right after packing up and having a quick breakfast, I'm going to hit rush hour traffic in Ottawa and add on about an hour to my two-hour drive, while going on no sleep. Which is the better option? Who the fuck knows?

I'm opting for driving without snow, but it means rush hour traffic and sleep deprivation. I mean, more sleep deprivation than usual. If I get home early enough, I'll try to take a nap before Bean gets home from daycare. In theory, that should be doable. I can't imagine that driving conditions will be so bad that it'll take me eight or more hours to drive home. (Famous last words. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything)

Compounding all this is the fact that I had a rather shitty time of it at work last night. Maybe Mercury is retrograde again, maybe the moon was full, I don't know, but all my systems shat themselves and died. They took turns to do it, very politely, too, so that I ended up spending the entire night on the phone with multiple help desks trying to sort things out. Also one of the alarms went off at work: a really loud, really shrill alarm that's right outside my door and that can't be turned off. And because it wasn't deemed a "priority" alarm, I was informed that it would wait until regular hours started this morning. So I got a good seven hours of that to add to everything else that was going on. All the help desk people asked me what the sound was.

"That's not your fire alarm, is it?"

"No, no, it's fine."

"What did you say?"

"I said it's fine! Can we go back to fixing the network connection please?"

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you very well."

Etc.

Anyway, I am having breakfast. There will be more coffee in a minute. Because I'm leaving early, it means I can't pick up milk the way I'd intended (milk in Ontario is much cheaper than in Quebec, so I try to stock up on my way home usually). So thank you, weather, for fucking things up for me even more. After coffee I'll finish packing and be on my way. I have to get gas for the car (yet another delay), and I may try to aim for a Tim Horton's as well mid-trip, in an effort not to fall asleep at the wheel, which would be so many levels of disastrous I don't know where to start.

Wish me luck!
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Sergent)
[livejournal.com profile] pdaughter has been taking a cake decorating class given by Wilton at Michael's Stores (the one in Vaudreuil). It's every Sunday, which means that it's been tricky to schedule babysitting for Bean on the Sundays I'm not home, 50% of the time. Unfortunately the class doesn't appear to be held on weekdays, when Bean is in daycare, because that would make it easier for everyone.

Still, today I am home until the afternoon, so Bean and I will be spending some quality time together over the course of the morning. The last few times we've watched videos on my computer, but I'm hoping that we can find something with less screen time to do. Or at least something that doesn't involve my computer. He has his LeapPad, and if worse comes to worst I'll suggest a movie. We never did finish Sleeping Beauty the other night, so perhaps we shall do that today.

Picture-heavy recap of yesterday under the cut )
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Winter Is Coming)
I'm sorry, you say I got that wrong? That it's Valentine's Day? *peers out the window* Snow Day seems like a perfectly apt name for it. :P

Happy Valentine's Day for those who celebrate it, whether you're single, dating, married, shacked up, in a polyamorous relationship, whatever permutation of humanity floats your boat. Love is for everyone, and doesn't come purely in the form of romantic love, no matter what the greeting cards would like to have you believe.

The proof is in the pudding, after all. Lots of friends get together on Valentine's Day to do something special. My father always made sure that both my mother and I got a symbolic present on the day, too. It wasn't about being a couple, it was about love, and he loves both of us.

It'll be the same tonight. If I can get through all this snow, I need to run some errands in order to make tonight special. I haven't figured out what I want to make for dinner. It has to be something Bean will eat (hah), but I'd also like it to be a little fancier than our usual fare. I also need to wrap the tiny presents I got. I was going to knit little Valentine's hearts for the two of them, but I think I won't have time. Maybe next time. :)

I keep meaning to get back into knitting, but I haven't yet found a pattern that I like and that will use only the yarn I have in my stash. [livejournal.com profile] pdaughter seems to really like her Doctor Who scarf, so at least there's that. I should check my stash again, and see what I might be able to get away with.

Also, in my copious amount of spare time, I'm thinking of trying to learn to draw better than I do now. That's not hard, as I can't even manage basic drawing right now. If I ever manage to get myself out of the house today, I'm planning on a trip to Michael's for stitch holders and for a small drawing pad and pencils. I may borrow [livejournal.com profile] pdaughter's copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and do some of those exercises (I had my own copy, but a long time ago my cats peed all over it and ruined it. My cats are one of the numerous reasons I can't have nice things.). I wonder if [livejournal.com profile] april_drawing is still taking place? I've been out of the loop.

I miss a lot of the things I used to do before work ate my life. I miss dancing and learning languages. Dancing isn't feasible these days, schedule-wise, but I may look for some language books and see if I can't immerse myself back in German or Italian, or maybe start a new language. Spanish seems a pretty likely candidate. The last time I tried Mandarin was an unmitigated disaster, so I think holding off on that is a better plan.
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (I amaze myself)
... so consider this today's post.

The car has been dropped off at the shop. With any luck, in two days' time, I shall have a bumper that is no longer concave! I am excited. Ever since the summer of 2010 when someone hit my car in a parking lot while I was shopping, I've had a giant dent in the bumper. I never bothered to get it fixed, but after the little fender bender I had in early December I decided that the insurance could handle it this time around.

Today is a day for errands. Groceries, dry cleaning, prep for tomorrow's cooking day, and then a Capricornucopia meeting. I'm also looking forward to the cooking day tomorrow. We haven't had one in many months, and I've always enjoyed them.

Right now I am sore all over. The thaw and subsequent freeze yesterday morning meant that when I went to start my car, I literally spun my wheels. No amount of salt seemed to help, and I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to shove my car out of the icy hole in which it sat. Luckily some good Samaritans stopped by to help me out after that, but it still took two of us to push the car out of the hole while another guy drove. So all my muscles hurt today.

I did get home a little earlier than I anticipated last night, and Bean wasn't asleep yet (thanks to a nap at daycare which wrecked bedtime), so I got to give him a kiss goodnight. He asked me if I'd gotten cupcakes for my birthday, and was very disappointed when I said I hadn't. Then he all but shot out of bed to inform [livejournal.com profile] pdaughter: "Mama! Dah-dee IS want a cupcake for her birthday!" So it appears there will be cupcakes at Capricornucopia. No complaints here. ;)

On that note, it's time for me to get cracking. I've taken painkillers for the muscle aches and the latent headache, and now I'm running a bit behind on my self-imposed timeline for this morning. With any luck my errands will take less time than I planned for, which will get me back on track.

The dog and all the cats are sound asleep. I am jealous.
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Sleeping Dogs)
So I'm thinking of getting a space heater. This place doesn't heat all that efficiently, and the thermostat in the kitchen appears to have permanently given up the ghost.

Any recommendations from local folks? Horror stories of what to avoid?

Thanks! :)
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Winter Is Coming)
Before I got onto my amusing anecdote, allow me to express all my GLEE at my Generic Seasonal Greeting Card™ from [livejournal.com profile] prolixfootle.

\o/


So winter seems to have caught most of Montreal off-guard. Heck, even I was a couple of days late getting my winter tires put on the GSVCO. What a difference traction makes! It's as though a few months without cold and snow lulls us all into a false sense of security or something.

Last night, though, there was a serious mishap outside my front door. A snow-removal tractor clipped the fender of a parked car and proceeded to just about rip half the side of the car right off.

No injuries, but the car looked like it was going to need some major TLC. Inconvenient at this time of year, to be sure.
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Blustery)
It's snowing out. Again.

I have been sitting on my sofa all day with George curled up next to me. Every so often he rolls over and demands that I rub his belly.

I'm re-watching "Supernatural," because I am just that obsessed. It's still making me giggle and cringe and worry about the characters. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of shows that have been able to do that for me a second time around ("The Pretender" is one of them, for the record).

In short: snowy day, purring cats, good TV.

Yeah, life is rough.


S.A.D. stuff behind the cut. The short version is: Phnee is taking St. John's Wort and things are better. )

So, yeah. Doing better. It's not exactly unicorns pissing rainbows and butterflies, but it's better.

Maybe later on I'll get around to posting the usual memes I do around this time of year, start making plans, which is what I always do around my birthday.

Good times.

Happy trails, all!
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Blustery)
Spent the morning with [livejournal.com profile] karine, [livejournal.com profile] owldaughter, [livejournal.com profile] ai731 and [livejournal.com profile] toughlovemuse doing the knitting thing, had a delicious lunch of soup, freshly-baked rolls, and schadenfreude pie.

Have been vegging at home, watching the new season of Heroes, getting some writing done, having quality time with the cats. Good times, overall.

The weather is kind of grey, which I suppose is normal for November. Sleeping cats, however, totally makes up for that.
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Winter Is Coming)
It's snowing.
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Sleeping Dogs)
I've been getting up late all week. Not sure why, except that the days are getting colder and shorter, and I've never been a particular fan of this season change. I've always been more tired around this time of year, and I guess this year is no exception.

Had a really intense dream about taking a 911 call in which the only thing I could hear was screaming in the background (note: I don't take 911 calls in my regular job, since the RCMP doesn't have jurisdiction over that in Montreal. This was all my subconscious playing up.). I flagged down my supervisor who was in his office, and said: "[ADD!Supervisor], I need you to trace this call right now. Someone's getting murdered!" I remember thinking in my dream that I should have said "It *sounds* like someone's getting murdered," but I couldn't do anything about it. I tried to get someone's attention through the phone, and I got a young child, who didn't seem to understand what was going on, and wanted to hang up. I kept calling over and over not to hang up the phone, and after that things get a little hazy.

I think that after that the dream kind of switched to where I was more actively involved in the scene, and I'm pretty sure that things weren't as they seemed. There had been violence but no murder, and after that things get very very blurry in my memory. I do know that I ended up in one of my usual dreamscapes of weirdly-designed buildings, going through winding corridors and secret doors and stairs and the like that weren't quite Euclidian in design (Cthulhu! Ftangh!).

Part of me seriously wishes I was able to paint and draw well, because damn would I have fun drawing the weird stuff I dream up. It's always vast, epic scenery when I'm outside, or huge, misshapen buildings when I'm inside, with ceilings that stretch out forever and corridors that wind and twist and lead into even weirder-looking rooms.

It strikes me as odd that I remember the beginning of the dream so vividly, but not the rest. Huh.
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Umbrella)
So I am up and have been since 07:00. Sometime between 08:00 and 12:00 I will be receiving the delivery of my new patio furniture.

Today if the rain holds off I have some digging to do in the garden. Otherwise, I guess I'll putter around inside and try to get some cleaning done. Certainly I'm at the very least going to work on dishes and laundry.

I am definitely going to take a nap today, once the furniture is here. It's very annoying, but I'm always really tired after working night shift, and this week appears to be no exception. So, a nap feels like a good idea.

I really hope the rain holds off.

Meow!

Jun. 7th, 2009 04:34 am
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (That went well)
Two hours until I can go home.

Den!Mother came in to replace Excitable!Puppy yesterday, and so I only ended up having to stay an extra 45 minutes. So yay!

Today I must resist the temptation to forgo sleep and go outside in the garden all day. I came very close to doing that yesterday as well.

I hate night shift. It wrecks everything. Boo.

On Monday I am going to go spend my OT (the Overtime Fairy paid a visit in the form of a cheque!) on a barbecue and on furniture for the garden! I am very excited about this. This week is going to be expensive, I fear. I have lots of useful (although not entirely essential) stuff that I want to get for my place: shelving for storage space, some proper storage equipment for the shed, a few extra garden things (one of those racks for the garden hose would be nice), etc. I am going to take some time, maybe tonight, to sit down, make a list of things I absolutely want and things that would be nice to have but aren't essential, and figure out a budget for the whole thing.

In other news, I am royally pissed off. Not only is this weekend GORGEOUS while I am working night shift and can't enjoy it, but next week's forecast is all about the rain, when I would much rather be in my garden. GNAR!
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (That went well)
So yesterday's plans kind of went out the window, but it was a great day nonetheless. [livejournal.com profile] moonandtree, who is now moved in, helped me out in the garden. He got the weed-whacker going, and I laid waste to the oceans of creeping Charlie in the back. By the time I was done I was covered in green shrapnel. It was pretty funny. The cherry tomatoes are sulking but not dead, as are the cucumbers, and everything else appears to be doing pretty well. The garden is really starting to take shape, and I'm looking forward to the rest of this summer puttering around in it.

On a whim I invited my friend Glo and her boyfriend JF to dinner, and [livejournal.com profile] moonandtree as well. We went grocery shopping, and then came back in order to do a ton of cooking. Glo and I cooked (she did most of it, but I helped), we all drank beer, listened to music, and discussed jobs and geeky things and generally had a fantastic time. Glo made a couple of incredible dishes (a ricotta spread for oven-toasted bread, which we complemented with marmalade and onion jam, and angel hair pasta with veggies, rosé sauce and chicken cooked in lemon, tarragon and rosemary), and I made rhubarb and strawberry sauce which we poured over ice cream with a bit of fruit salad for dessert. It was scrumptious.

This is the kind of thing I had envisioned when I moved in here: spontaneous dinners with guests. Good food, good company, a little bit of alcohol, and everyone leaves happy.

Today I am going hunting for wedding clothes with [livejournal.com profile] luvenditti, and I will try to get all the other errands done that I didn't get to yesterday.

All in all, what with the gorgeous weather and the laid-back time, I'm having a glorious weekend.

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