A return to the outdoors!

Congratulate me, everyone. Tonight I finally managed to get myself outside for a walk. I believe this is my first bit of physical activity for the new year, besides my yoga class. I had been telling myself that it's been so cold lately that a walk outside seemed foolhardy. But today was quite mild, so I had no excuse.

Once I got going, I had a really good walk. It was good to breathe fresh air and hear the crunch of snow/ice under my feet. I even managed to avoid any slipping and falling. I've had a lot of things on my mind lately, so it was good to be able think some stuff through outside the confines of my apartment.

When I got back home, I realized that I hadn't eaten any potatoes yet today, so I made some oven fries and steak for supper. I must say, I'm doing very well with the potato consumption. I think I'm about 5 pounds into the 10 pound bag. I've been looking into potato pizza recipes, so I might try something like that on the weekend. Anyone ever had potato pizza before?

Where is my snow?

I was totally banking on a snow day today. Environment Canada had issued a snowfall warning, and The Weather Network showed 15 to 20 cm of snow starting at around 2:00 in the morning. Monday is my day to travel Up the River for work, so I was all ready to call and cancel my patients in the morning. I was even going to do something I never do: use my vacation hours to take the day off. I didn't make my lunch or iron my clothes last night. I set my alarm for later than usual. And, I didn't bother filling up the car with gas, because there was no way I was going to be going anywhere during the big snow.

So when the alarm went off at 6:59, I sprung awake, ready to greet 5 to 10 cm of freshly fallen snow. I looked out the window - nothing. I listened to the radio - no school cancellations.

Alas, this was no snow day.

So I had to scurry around getting dressed and out the door. I did get work today, but I was in a sorry state. I cursed the weatherman all day, and I bemoaned the loss of snow day. Maybe next week...

Death of a Christmas tree

So I finally did it - I dismembered my Christmas tree. You might recall that this year's tree was a "secret tree", since my landlord decided to ban all real Christmas trees from the building. But Michelle and I managed to sneak this one in, and it went undetected by anyone. Or at least I think it did.

Anyway, the problem with a secret tree is that it's hard to get it out of the building. So I did the same thing I did a few years ago - I sawed off all the branches and split the trunk into four segments. Then I bundled it all up into garbage bags and stealthily got them into the garbage bin. And no one was the wiser. It took almost all of Saturday to get it done, but I did it, and now I don't have to think about it anymore.

And really, it was perfect timing for the operation, because just this afternoon the super knocked on my door to tell me about a fire drill tomorrow. I can only imagine if he had done that yesterday. As it was, I held my body protectively in the door opening to block the view of my apartment, just in case there may have been some spare needles strewn on the floor. There is no way he could have missed the eau de Christmas tree that lingered in the apartment all day yesterday. Phew!

Day of rest

Sometimes I complain about my long work hours, but that all flies by the wayside when I have my Friday off. There is definitely something to be said for a weekend that starts on Thursday at 4:00 pm. How I love having a lazy Friday morning, and even though my body still wakes up at its usual time, I have no trouble rolling over in bed and sleeping for another few hours. It's absolutely delightful!

This afternoon I watched the movie Anastasia, not the 1997 animated one with the voice talents of John Cusack and Meg Ryan, but the 1956 version with Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman. I had seen it on tv before, but it never really grabbed my attention until today. I think perhaps I kept comparing it to the 1997 film and wondered when the singing and dancing would start. Anyway, I found the film surprisingly enjoyable.

Speaking of enjoyable, check out Jim Gaffigan's stand-up routine on bacon. Seriously, it's funny.

One potato, two potato

This is the third day in a row I've eaten potatoes. I am quite determined to work my way through all 10 pounds of them. Tonight I made scalloped potatoes. The recipe called for six potatoes, so that was fantastic! That brings the potato count up to ten. I was a lazy cook and didn't peel the potatoes, which may have negatively affected the outcome of the dish. The sauce didn't thicken as much as I would have liked, and some of the potato slices were a little crunchy, which makes me wonder for the umpteenth time whether my oven is working properly. But still, the potatoes were tasty, and my belly is full.

When you know the notes to sing...

So tonight at choir I couldn't sing a high D. Usually, that note is at the uppermost of my range, but I can normally muster a passable squawk. But tonight, I couldn't even get that, which made totally self-conscious of all the other notes I was singing, which made me paranoid that I wasn't singing in tune. And then, I started to not be able to sing a C. Ack! Talk about a crisis.

It really was too bad, since the piece we were singing is really beautiful, and all I wanted to do was sing it properly. Hopefully if I take care of my voice, I'll be better next week.

Pass the earplugs again.

Some things never change. Downstairs Neighbour and her Boyfriend are spending a lot of time together recently. Now, I'm not sure if this is a new boyfriend, because there was a time when she would be away all evening and come home around 11:00 and go to bed alone. But lately she's been bringing him home with her and they've been puttering around for a few hours before heading to bed. And, as far as I can tell, they have been saving their bedroom activities for after I fall asleep. Either that or they're much more silent. Thank goodness.

This quasi-cohabitation makes me long more and more for my own space. Like a house or something. However, that can't happen until I pay off my debt and have enough money for a down payment for a house. Does that sound grown-up or what? I've been doing a lot of thinking about financial planning recently, and I've been trying to educate myself in that regard. Because really, it's not something that I learned about in school or university, although I certainly wish I did.

I've been reading a lot on the internet about money and such. My favourite personal finance blog is Get Rich Slowly. It's written by guy who has gradually worked his way out of debt, and his posts are well-written and informative. I like reading the comments, because it's interesting to see everyone's perspectives on saving and spending money. And I encourage you all to read it and learn about personal finance. Because knowledge is power.

BTW, I had two baked potatoes with my supper this evening. Two down, fifty (or more) to go.

Potatoes? Why, that's on special today!

"Cecil, come and help."

I couldn't resist buying 10 pounds of potatoes today. Maybe I was homesick, or maybe I was trying to buy something else that started with the letter "p". Prunes? Pink pills? Peppercorns? Peaches, pears, plums?

Pitchforks?

At this time of year?

Anyway, now I'm trying to come up with inventive ways to use up all my potatoes. Any suggestions?

Namaste

This afternoon was my second yoga class. I found last week's class was rather tricky - I didn't get there until after the class started, my mat was right beside a fan and far from the instructor so I couldn't hear very well, and my body definitely protested being put into all those stretchy positions. It took about four days for the post-yoga soreness to wear off. And let's not forget that I wore a loose fitting shirt, so I'm pretty sure that when I was bending over, the people behind me got a great view of my bumpy tummy and black bra.

This week definitely went better. I arrived early and got a good position off to the side but close to the front. I wore two relatively clingy shirts, so there was no peep show today. And I'm sort of getting the hang of some of the asanas. Sort of.

Right after yoga, I went over to a friend's house for dinner. We had Indian curry, and I ate the whole thing. This is noteworthy, because the curry had beans and cauliflower and beans and chickpeas. And I ate them all.

And now I'm watching Northanger Abbey on PBS's Masterpiece Classic. But I have to get up early tomorrow, so it might have to wait for another time. The series is hosted by Gillian Anderson, and it's funny to see her looking so un-Scullyish. And that makes me miss my X-Files.

And Zeke seems to like it quite well living with me. Perhaps he'll stay a long time.

Remembering December

Okay, so I've spent the ENTIRE DAY sitting with Zeke and watching skating. We're getting along very well. There are many other things I could have been doing, like cleaning my apartment, but I felt that it was important for Zeke and I to begin the bonding process. Plus, ever since Rosey and I went to Canadian Nationals last year, I've developed a taste for watching all the skaters in a competition, instead of the top 6 skaters. So I ordered CBC Country Canada for the entire month, so I can watch the entire competition live. LIVE! For $2.49!! Does it get any better?

So now I'm on hour 7 of skating today, and I have to admit, my brain is starting to get a little mushy. But I am determined to persevere. Only 2 more hours to go today.

While the skaters are warming up, I've had time to upload a few December photos for you. I know I posted briefly about my December happenstances, but now I have photographic evidence!


December 4: The first big snow! Little did I know that this was only the beginning of the December bog snows.
December 6: The view from my hotel room in Chicago. I really didn't get the chance to explore the city as much as I wanted to, because I got delayed so long in Montreal, and because I was so busy during the conference learning ear stuff and making contacts.
December 7: I did venture out to dinner one evening with some acquaintances. The city is so pretty!

December 12: aka "the day I got my Christmas tree" aka "the day Michelle and I went to see the Lights at St. Mary's". What an experience. I've never seen so many lights on so many houses. We followed a tour bus all the way through the reserve, winding our way from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac, and oohing and aahing over the spectacle of it all.


December 14: Not only did I manage to sneak my tree into my apartment, I also managed to find time to decorate it in between rehearsals for The Show. And yes, I know it's crooked, but I don't care. It made my apartment smell so good! Now, if only I could find the desire to take it down.

She's baaaaaaaack!

It's official. I am back online.

Allow me to introduce you to Ezekiel. You can call him "Eee", or "Zee", or "Zeke", or just Ezekiel. I am confident that he and I shall become firm friends.

I have spent the last few weeks researching laptops. Now, that's no easy feat when you don't have a home computer. I waffled back and forth between an HP and a Dell, trying to learn about features like matte and glossy screens, and I was quite obsessive about choosing a screen size.

In the end, I brought Ezekiel home because he was cheap(er). Well, he was on sale.

Words cannot express how difficult it has been coping without a computer. It feels as if my life force has slowly be slipping away from me. I miss having contact with people. It's odd that I feel contected to people through a computer, but that's the way it is. Hopefully I'll be a little more chipper from now on.

And now, Zeke and I are going to watch some skating. He's such good company!

I'm still alive, I swear.

No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth.

It's just that my computer is still dead, which makes it quite difficult to update the blog. I can't count the number of times in the last few weeks where something has happened and I started automatically writing about in my head. My brain is full of half-written sentences.

This no computer situation is getting quite dire. I was torn between buying a new one (a laptop, no less) ASAP and trying to get my other one fixed ASAP. Fixing my current one seemed more fiscally responsible, but I had been planning on buying a new one in the coming months anyways, so it's not going to hurt that much to bump the schedule up a little bit. So, in my spare time (hah!) at work, I've been researching laptops. So hopefully I'll be back online more consistently in the near future.

This weekend I've been at Rosey and Liam's in Halifax. Last night I saw White Christmas at Neptune, which was absolutely delightful. I was so impressed with it, especially the tap dancing. If you ask me, life needs more tap dancing. There's something about the clackety sound of synchronized feet tapping that fills me with absolute joy. It was a well-paced show, with fantastic music and great performances by everyone. I was pleased to see lots of Festival alum in the cast. And it snowed in the theater. Yep, it snowed. I would totally go again.

So if anyone is still reading this, thanks for sticking around. I'll see what I can do to keep the updates coming sans computer.