A Quiet Lonely Saturday

Almost forgot to blog today. And now I'm beat so this will be a quick one.

I managed to have a slow paced semi productive day today. Slept in later than I'd planned. Talked to my sister on the phone for a few minutes... Skyped with my boyfriend all the way from Arizona - chatted with his folks a bit too. Made me even more excited to see him! (I will be leaving the airport with him in approximately 24 hours!!!!!) Then I was off to Chinook Centre mall in search of a belated Xmas gift for my brother, which I got. Crossed him off my list. Also got an idea for my dads present but am going to try and source it cheaper before I buy it. I also got the last piece of Doug's birthday present :-) I am pretty excited. I can't wait to go out for his bday dinner/ movie.

While shopping at Chinook I found something that Made. My. Life. See photo below... They have a Lego store!!!! A entire store full of nothing but Lego and Lego accessories! And at the back is an entire floor to super high ceiling of bulk Lego! I was in heaven! Managed to quell the urge to buy some - barely. Very tempting.

The other thing that happened while I was at the mall was that I got the call I've been dreading from my mom. Her best friend died today from Lung Cancer. It is very hard to hear that kind of sadness coming from your mom and not be able to do anything to help. Not even something simple like give her a hug, or make dinner, or tale care of Becky so that mom can go be sad without worrying about her. I feel useless. And I feel like a jerk for not being out there with her. But the winter roads prevent driving and the cost prevents flying. Sigh.

Well tomorrow brings an early start to spring cleaning, more laundry, and getting my as decorations and suitcases out to the garage. And a nap and a trip to the airport!!

The Results of My Boredom

Some days in my life are boring and I will have little to nothing interesting was done to discuss. Today is one of those days. Haha I sound like Law and Order. "... an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories."

Work was fairly boring/ slow. Was visited by a couple of reps today. Worked on some designs for sales I hope to close in the next week or two. No new leads. Buddy at work is still childishly mad at me. I don't think I mentioned that the other day and I don't want to get into specifics but he thinks I threw him under the bus. Sometimes what people fail to realize is that even if they were right and I did throw them under the bus, I wouldn't have been able to if they'd been doing their jobs properly. Oh well. He is just a sensitive type and he needs to grow up and take responsibility for his actions and realize that I was helping him.

My boredom is realized at home this week too. With working all 11-8 shifts this week I have pretty much come home and watched tv alone in bed. I haven't really watched much of any tv this year. I was only caught up on Big Bang Theory and Once Upon A Time because they are both awesome. Last night I caught up on Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother... And tonight I've been catching up on Parenthood (more behind on that than the others so it's takin longer). Once Doug gets home I will go back to ignoring tv I'm sure but it's acting as a decent distraction right now.

I have the weekend off and will be alone for the entirety of it. I plan on being productive and get some early spring cleaning done, and some laundry, and some shopping. And a nap on Sunday. That's the plan - no procrastination.

The other part of being alone and weird hours is that when I get home it's too late to want to really cook anything for dinner and too late to eat a big meal anyway. So the below pictures represent this evenings gourmet meal: Uncle Ben's microwave Mushroom Risotto and a cup of Rainbow Sherbet! Yummy and nutritious. Haha or something like that

Staying Warm

You know I've long since thought that once it's past -20 or so out it all kids feels the same. Frackin' cold!!! But I'd also rather the cold than dumps of snow! At least the cold you can bundle up for. I hate having to shovel and scrape my car off when we get lots of snow. Not to mention how it makes the roads that much more treacherous. So not a fan! And I have winter bundling down to a science!!

See picture below for an idea of how silly (and warm!) I look in the following: two pairs of socks, thinsulated winter boots that come up almost to my knees, leggings, pants, a tank top, t-shirt, sweater (with hood up), ear muffs, leather gloves (my first pair in my whole life that I remember actually fitting my tiny elfish hands!), only one scarf today pulled up over my mouth and nose (yesterday it was two, so I guess there must be a slight difference between -35 and -25 after all!), and a heavy down-filled winter jacket that comes down past most of my thighs and a big fur-lined up. The coldest part of me is my knees. Not sure what more I could do in that area but it's not cold enough to worry about really. It may take awhile to bundle up like that, and I'm pretty much only ever walking from a building to my car, but damnit am I warm in even the coldest Canadian temperatures!! I'd happily stay in these temperatures until the end of this winter of it meant no more snow!!! (I may live to regret saying that)

Mother Nature is a Heartless B***h

I must stop waiting for near or past midnight to post these blog updates! I exhausted!

I made some progress today at work on my entry into this months Design Contest. Starting this month there is a Nationwide Contest for the Best Kitchen Designs! I know the odds are very slim of me winning, BUT my odds greatly improve if I actually enter. So I am going to make sure that I do every month! Fingers crossed!

Well you must be wondering what the profanity was about. Not that I know who 'you' are... In fact I'm pretty sure no one even reads this. ANYways, Mother Nature had it in for me today. More freezing temperatures of -35 with windchill for most of the day which is supposed to still continue the rest of the week. But besides that, when I was getting into the shower this evening, I was nearly attacked by a spider! Seriously... A spider?! In January?! Where did this thing come from? And wheres it been hiding? I should NOT have to deal with both spiders and subzero winter temperatures at the SAME TIME!! seriously uncool. And having my boyfriend be 2,500 km away soaking in +20 degree temperatures and not able to save me did NOT help. Sigh. I miss him.

I also miss the luxury of being able to control the heat of my own living space! seriously I think my landlords are trying to cook me alive down here. Seriously tempted to open the door I am so hot. I get that it's cold outside but I can only imagine what it's costing them to heat this place right now. Pant pant pant

Mean Auntie

Ok, enough Jack Frost - we get it! It's winter!! Plans changed tonight due to increasingly frigid temperatures.

We stayed inside and played all day. They let me sleep in until 1030 which I was not expecting. Although apparently Kaydence tried to get me up at 930 but was too quiet (especially with me having one ear plug in to drown out the noisy furnace (sleeping in am unfinished open basement)). I got some good playtime in with both kids which was great. I've missed them. For only being about a half hour away from me it's amazing how easy it is to let life distract you from getting together. I feel like I hardly know Rylund, or at least wish that I was as close with him as I am with Kaydence. They killed my cell phone battery today playing with Talking Tom and Peekaboo Barn. I had a bit of a hard auntie moment this evening trying to teach Kaydence a valuable life lesson. Rylund had been playing nicely with my phone and She cam up to him and grabbed it out of his hands. So, understandably, he ran crying to mom. So after a minute I grabbed it from Kaydence. She immediately started whining "heyyyy I was playing with that!" "well. Now I am." oh did she start bawling. "well you did the same thing to your brother - how do you think it made him feel??" boy was she mad at me!

So I had planned on going home around supper time. Or rather, going to the mall and then home. But by the time it rolled around it was -35, dark and I was advised that the roads were awful! It is also expected to hit -49 overnight with windchill factor (this is insane!!! How is calgary NOT part of the windchill warning that is in effect for most of western Canada?!) Anyways, we decided it would be best for me to stay another night and go home in the morning after rush hour when it's not dark anymore. I don't work until 11 so that was doable. One thing I hadnt taken into consideration though until right when I was getting ready for bed: I had taken my bag and pillow to the car earlier that afternoon when I'd gone to plug it in! So I had to bundle up to go get it. When I got it back inside (still shivering) I discovered that my contact solution was frozen solid!! I've never yet fallen asleep before with contacts in (other than very short naps) and I wasnt sure about how I felt about it tonight. But then I decided to put the little bottle into a mug of hot water to thaw it out. Worked like a charm!! Good thing I'm so smart and can solve my own dilemmas sometimes!

What a Pain in the Neck

Well, it was bound to happen eventually... I missed a day on my blog. This post is for yesterday.

Gawd I felt like an idiot. First I was fifteen minutes late for work just because I couldn't get out of bed on time. Then when I got to work and was putting my purse away in my locker... I tweaked something in my neck and pinched a nerve. I looked like I was walking around all day with a stick up my ass. Could NOT move my neck. So stiff. I spent the next six hours painfully navigating my day and then decided to cut my losses and leave early. Only after filling out a workers comp claim though since, technically speaking, I did injure myself at work. Then I got something to eat and spent a few hours laying in bed at home, resting.

Then I decided to keep with my original plan to go visit my friend Melanie. We had planned for me to spend the night so we could stay up chatting with wine - I figured I would still be up for that even with a bad neck. Then I was to spend the next day with her and her two kids (my pseudo niece and nephew). Wine was good, conversation and catching up was even better. Neck was very sore though.

I was quite saddened by the fact that it was Doug's birthday and I wasn't able to celebrate it with him! His first birthday that we've been together for and I could even give him birthday kisses! I missed him extra much! Oh well, we will have lots more birthdays together and will celebrate his when he gets home.

Tip: never lay down in bed in the middle of the afternoon, fully clothed in black, and crawl under a very sheddy down blanket. See photo for the many sheets of lint roller it took to defeather me!

Day Dreaming of Mexico... Brrr!

Bbbbrrrrr...!!!!! Ok I was SO okay with winter's unexplained absence, and equally NOT okay with it's sudden reappearance! I mean, yes, I'm aware that this is Canada and I should be thankful that it's taken until the middle of January for us to actually get winter - blah, blah, blah. Nope. Never okay with winter. I should move to Mexico. Maybe one day. Sigh.

I had a design appointment today for a couple that I've met with once prior... Making some headway on their design and rapport building. I am confident that they will go with my design once they've finalized details. I also scheduled them for a free consult on their upstairs bath reno. January is off to a good start business-wise. Fingers crossed that we are going to continue in this trend.

After work I went to a lounge for beer and apples with a girl from work. This was for our "social committee meeting". Last year it was a committee of one (just her) basically, with a couple other girls pitching in occasionally with manning some events or ticket sales but not much in the planning or organizing dept. Now it is a committee of two! I definitely brought in some fresh ideas I think and got us pretty fired up about some future ideas. We are planned for monthly events through to April at least. And we started the ball rolling on a HUGE event for Canada Day. My idea, too. I am super excited and hopeful that it will work out. I will be very disappointed if it does not. I am a little worried though that I have just given the two of us a ton of work and am hoping we aren't biting off more than we can chew! Details to follow - I don't want to jinx anything!!