I had to do it!

Before I removed the bows I just had to take her picture. As you can see, she was not impressed.

Back from Hormone Hell

After yesterday's near meltdown, I'm feeling better than ever today. Should I be worried? Hormones really are powerful things. I appreciate all of you making me laugh yesterday. It was probably what made the difference.

We stopped at the dry cleaners on the way home to pick up Dave's suit and my long black dress. Guess it's been a while since I required drycleaning services so I was a little bit surprised when the bill came to $35. Worst part is that my sister told me that the long dress was probably too fancy for the company party (she used to work there and this is Dave's first year there) so now I'm hoping that the short dress in my closet doesn't need drycleaning too.

Next stop was at home where I tricked Holly into coming for a car ride and then dropped her off at Idele's Doggie Day Spa. That's not the real name but her sign's in french and I have no idea what the hell it translates to. Holly hates the spa (aka the groomer). As much as I try to tell her how pretty she is when she comes home and how good she's going to feel after a nice bath and haircut, she's not buying it. Just the mere mention of B A T H turns her into a furry little vibrator. *insert vibrator joke here* As soon as we drive past the corner for her boyfriend Rexie's house (aka Kade's house) she knows that she's in trouble and starts whining (just like her Mom, eh?) and running around trying to hide in the car.

Idele makes me laugh. She's very french but speaks english quite well. Like many people I've met who learned english after speaking french, she uses "fuck" like it was punctuation, fuck. It's hilarious, although I hope like hell that I never meet her while my Mom's with me. I'm pretty sure it's not the swearing that makes Holly shake though. That probably makes her feel right at home. I asked Idele how long it would be and she told me to come back in just over an hour. Holly sat on the grooming table shaking and begging me with her little puppy dog eyes not to leave her. It really was quite pathetic.

I had an hour or so to kill and it was hardly worth driving home (10 minutes each way) and then coming back so I stayed in town and did some errands. I had to go to the Pharmacie to pick up a couple prescriptions. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE this Pharmacie? They keep getting my file mixed up between my married and maiden names because of the whole Quebec/maiden name rule. Then a month ago they told me that I'd have to get a new prescription for my Losec because the prescription was written over a year ago. It didn't matter that there were still 10 repeats on it and that I no longer have a family doctor, apparently it's against the law to give out drugs prescribed over a year ago. Never had this problem in Ontario.

So yesterday (remember my mood yesterday?) I call to have two of my thyroid prescriptions refilled. Every month it's the same thing. "It says here that you still have X number of days left before you're due for a refill." And every month I tell them the same thing. "My dosage fluctuates for my thyroid medication depending on my bloodwork results. My doctor changes my dosage when required so the dosage on the actual prescription isn't always correct." I try to be nice and polite but after that whole Losec deal I'm finding it very difficult to be patient. I mean, come on, they're phucking pharmacists! Shouldn't they understand that thyroid meds fluctuate at times? After I gave my usual reply yesterday the pharmacist asks, "When can we expect a new prescription then?" Somehow I managed to stop my mouth from using the words "hell" and "freezes over" and replied that she could expect one when the last of my three remaining repeats were complete. Well I didn't lie, she can certainly expect one then. Getting one will be a different story.

At this point I still had about 45 minutes to kill so I stopped at the Subway and made supper. Still more time to kill and in a town the size of Temiscaming there are only so many places you can loiter on a Monday night. When I got back to the spa, fuck, Holly was just getting the finishing touches. Her haircut complete, pawdicure done, she was powdered and puffed with pink bows on her ears. She looked like such a girl and you can just tell she hates it. *snicker*

I paid Idele and carried the little princess back out to the car where she finally stopped shaking. I was part way home before I realized that her collar and tags were missing. Turn around and head back up the hill to Idele's and Holly's got this WTF look on her face as if to say, "That's not funny Mommy!" One more stop for gas and smokes and I'm on my way home.

It was going on 7pm when I finally got to eat my Grilled Chicken Sub on an Italian Herb and Cheese bun. Dave went poof out to the garage right after supper so I mixed myself a nice tall drink and curled up in my lazy-boy in front of the fire and read my book with my little foo-foo dog at my feet. It was a nice ending to an otherwise shitty day.

Mondays Suck

Well at least this one does. Why you ask?

1. I woke up at 4am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I was wide awake then, not so much now.
2. *female stuff alert* Aunt Rose is due for a visit at the end of the week and I've got a raging case of PMS. My back is aching, my boobs are sore and I feel like ripping someone's head off. Nobody in particular either.
3. We had freezing rain overnight and everything was glare ice this morning. We did make it to work without ending up in the ditch but it was a crappy ride.
4. Dave pissed me off this morning by breathing. I'm thinking that might be partly because of the PMS thing. Him losing his job in March and our subsequent loss of income seems to be hitting me again today. I'm fighting back tears again. I thought I was past it but the lack of money I have to spend on Christmas this year is reminding me of it these days.
5. My boss called in at 7:45am to ask if anyone was looking for him. I wanted to say, "No, you fucking dumbass, everyone knows you're seldom in before 8am." But I didn't. Then, when him and Mean Jean arrived I got a rather cool "Good Morning" from her. Wonder what she thinks I did wrong now. There was a little post-it note stuck on the computer that she uses to look up exchange rates asking that nobody delete her short-cut icon. She probably deleted it herself cause she's so computer illiterate. I'm sure they've assumed it was me though because that's what normally happens.
6. Dave has spent every spare moment for the past two weeks in the garage working on his truck. He thinks that I should be happy that he's saving a bunch of money by doing his own work. I'll try to remember that as I'm sitting in the house again tonight by myself bored to tears.
7. I'm even pissed at myself for being such a whiney-ass. On the grand scheme of things I have nothing to complain about but dammit, I feel like whining today.

I need motivation today

Last night I went to a friend's house to watch the local Christmas telethon and had a few drinks. Didn't get home until 1:30am and Dave was still out in the garage working on his truck. I am beginning to wonder if he'll ever finish it. He originally told me that it would only take a couple weeks but the two weeks are almost up and it doesn't look anywhere near done to me. But what do I know, I'm just a girl.

The telethon is normally a big event at Howie and Nicky's house with a bunch of us getting together for drinks, food and generally laughing at the people that get drunk and perform on the local cable channel. There were only five of us this year but we still had a nice time. The highlight of the telethon every year is Phylius. We're guessing that he's around 50 years old and he's mentally challenged (is that the PC term). Every year he sings the same three songs, Ain't Gonna Rain No More, They're Gonna Put Me in the Movies, and Hey, Hey, Hey, It's a Beautiful Day. After he sings his three songs he presents a check on behalf of the Native band from the Reserve. He's always been my favorite. Last night I learned something about Phylius that has shattered my image of him. Apparently Phylius likes porn. I'm trying to erase that from my memory but I haven't been successful so far. We also came to the conclusion that, for a small community, we have a lot of very talented musicians. Singers, not so much.

So this morning I woke up around 9am (which is quite late for me these days) but it was cold so I stayed in bed and read the latest Suzanne Brockmann book that my sister lent me. She got it from the library so I have to finish it quickly. I thought it was about 10:30am when I started thinking I should get up but was shocked to find out that it was almost noon. I made toasted westerns for brunch and then Dave disappeared back out to his truck and left me sitting here wondering what I should try to accomplish today.

Things I really should be doing rather than sitting in front of the computer...

1. Put up the tree and decorate for Christmas.
2. Laundry - I have managed to wash two loads so far.
3. Clean the kitchen.
4. Cook something healthy for supper.
5. Figure out what to buy people for Christmas.

Instead I feel like curling up in a blanket and finishing my book and then having a nap or maybe scrapbooking for a while.

Anyone else have a work husband/wife?

Dan is my "work husband". We've worked together for over 20 years and we have days where we fight like we're married, days that we have a flirt-fest, days that we don't speak to each other, and days that we work really hard to make things better around here.

Some background. Dan's wife's parents were friends with my Grandparents and I grew up hearing all about Lori and Dan. They ended up moving to my old hometown and live near my parents. In January 1985 I started working here and got to know him. We've always joked around and got along well. Lori is a sweetheart too. They have no children, just dogs. She loves to travel and he doesn't so she travels with her friends and he stays home and goes fishing. They have their own sugar shack and make Maple Syrup in the spring and they spent this whole summer building a beautiful new home.

In the past few years we've both had much more responsibility added to our jobs and that was when we started having days where we didn't get along. So far we've always made up though. He's a little bit old-fashioned and he tends to treat me like his personal secretary at times but I don't let him away with it for the most part. He's learning. I did order flowers for Lori's 50th birthday last week for him but that was more because he wanted me to use my credit card because he doesn't have a one (even though they don't hurt for money) and I used to work in a flower shop. I really didn't mind doing that for him. But if my boss had asked me to do that I would have been pissed and told him to go piss up a rope.

My female coworker and I tease him constantly. He's the shop foreman and normally wears coveralls but once in a while he has a pile of office work to do and he comes up to the office wearing his jeans. It's so cute to see him blush when we whistle at his bum.

Don't you hate when that happens?

The Tim Horton's that Dave and I stop at every morning is undergoing renovations so they have one of those temporary stores set up. For the readers from south of the border the temporary stores consist of a transport trailer fitted with a donut shop inside. You'd think with the number of freakin' donut shops in this town there'd be another one we could go to on our way but there isn't. So we're stuck with this one for a while.

This morning Dave parked in a spot that was facing the drivethrough lane so the entire time he was inside I had headlights glaring in my eyes. When he came out with his coffee he told me that they didn't have my usual blueberry muffin because of a power failure so he bought me a donut instead. I thanked him and then we carried on our way.

Now I'm at work and I decide to see what kind of donut he bought me. He knows that the Cherry or Orange Cruellers are my favorite so I've got my tastebuds all ready for some crueller. Open the bag and find a chocolate glazed plain donut. I'm a little let down but at least I have a donut. I can hear my Mother's voice in my head saying, "There are children in Africa who would do cartwheels for a chocolate glazed donut."

I reach into the bag to pull the donut out and it doesn't budge. WTF? The chocolate icing has glued itself to the paper bag. *sigh* I decided that if I ripped the bag open I might be able to peel the chocolate off the bag keeping it on the donut. I'm sitting here at my desk gently peeling back the paper like I'm doing brain surgery but it's a good thing I'm not a surgeon or the patient would have died. Now I have a half bare donut and a ripped paper bag covered in blotches of chocolate.

You can't let good chocolate go to waste even if you're like me and don't particularly like chocolate. Gotta remember those kids in Africa. So here I am, sitting at my desk, hiding behind my monitor sucking the chocolate off a brown paper bag and it hit me. I really must share this.

This? Gave me gigglepants!

C

This one's for you Carey! I just got this email from my computer guru girlfriend and I thought of you immediately. *smoooch*

Catch up time

1. I spent 4 hours trying to download Glowie's wedding after the fact. My internet at home connects at 21.6 Kbps which aparently is not nearly fast enough to have watched it live. So after 4 hours of downloading I clicked on the play button and it all disappeared. At that point I went to bed and resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to wait until I got to work to see it.

2. Yesterday Dave and I went out for supper with Kade and his new girlfriend. It wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought it might be. We laughed and the conversation flowed quite nicely. I'm keeping my Mom's advice in mind of not getting too attached to her until we find out if she Miss Right or Miss Right Now. We've learned this after getting attached to too many of my son's girlfriends. It's weird, he always seems to end up with a new girl right before Christmas and then we go through the whole "What do I buy her for Christmas" question.

3. This morning I couldn't wait to get to work so that I could watch the much anticipated nuptuals. It was the first thing I did when I got to my desk at 7am. The wedding was beautiful. I chuckled when Glow answered with her new last name because I have and friend named Shawn and guess what his last name is.

4. Shortly after I finished watching the wedding I received an email from Colleen (Kade's ex if you haven't been following along). Kade had warned me that the shit would hit the fan if we went for supper with him and Sophie. Well it happened even quicker than I expected. At 7:37am I got the first email and at 8:00am I got another one from her. I'll spare you all the details but she was bitching about him and asking questions about why I don't call her anymore. She apparently had a busy morning because before I could even reply to the emails Kade called and said that she was banging on his door this morning at 7am screaming and shouting and taunting him to "just hit me". I knew she'd be upset about us going out for dinner with them but I honestly didn't expect all of this. I spent the rest of the day composing two very lengthy replies to her emails explaining how I feel about what has happened between us. Still haven't heard from her. I hope that my effort to explain what she does to push people away weren't in vain but I fear they will be.

5. I was bored on Saturday afternoon. Dave is doing a body job on his truck so he spent the entire day holed up in his garage. I went to town to return the movies I'd rented on Friday night. MCatt, with you in mind I rented Revenge of the Sith. It was a very good movie to sleep to. Sorry, I tried. When I got home my single domestic gene reared it's ugly head and I cooked up a storm. I made three meat pies and a double batch of chili.

Time for some Friday Fun

http://richstevens.thinkfulsolutions.com/unreal.swf'

You like optical illusions? I got this one in an email yesterday. It will blow you away!

Dammit

My SIL just IMed me. We'd been chatting earlier and she said that she had to go for an ultrasound. Her and my brother recently found out that they were expecting their 3rd child in June. When they found out my brother was overjoyed but my SIL had some reservations due to her age (38) and their sometimes shaky financial situation.

I chatted with her a few times as the days passed and she was starting to get more and more excited about this new baby. Today, during the ultrasound, they couldn't find a heartbeat.

It broke my heart.

My furbaby, Holly Marie

It's an old picture but she still looks the same. She hates wearing her coat and we don't normally make her wear it but when we have to take her on the snowmobile we put it on her.

She has boots too and seeing her with the boot on is seriously one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen. She sticks one leg at a time out and tries to shake the boot off and won't take a single step with them on.

And just for the record, her eyes don't always glow like that. *grin*

Grumble, grumble, grumble...

My friend Shannon just called. Power is out again at home. She offered to go over and hook up the generator for us. The forecast is calling for 60-100kph winds (100km=60mph) today. The ride into work was a wild one again this morning but not because of snow. This morning it was wind gusts, heavy rain and fog. I had to close my eyes a couple times when the road disappeared. Thankfully I wasn't driving at the time.

The building is making noises from the wind. I can't even imagine what it must have been like for the people in Cozumel during Hurricane Wilma. We went to Cozumel in April this year and the resort we stayed at was heavily damaged during Hurricane Emily and then when they had it 80% repaired along came Wilma. I was reading a message on cozumelmycozumel.com last night about what it was like for this woman named Betsy. She was alone with her dog while Wilma pounded on them for about 60 hours.

I had to edit to remove a link to the story because it made my blog go wonky and I am too anal to have a wonky blog.

Being friends shouldn't be so complicated

I'm sure most of you have read me crying the blues about my friends who are splitting up. For those of you who don't know the story, this couple were married for 18 years. We've hung around with them for over 10 years. We camped together; we travelled to Mexico and Dominican Republic together; we didn't knock when we entered each others homes and we even bought a cottage on the same lake as them so we'd be able to be visit back and forth.

Kade and I were friends first. We met playing ball and became drinking buddies because Kade and Howie (another friend) and I were always the last to go to bed after our many campfires. When I met Colleen I was intimidated by her at first. She has an abraisive way about her at times but eventually we also became friends. In August he walked out. He told me that he didn't love her anymore and there was no one else. I believed him and told people that. Last month he ended up with the neighbor, Sophie. Sophie had long been rumored to be the reason for the breakup by many people in town. Now I feel like a fool. Even after he started seeing Sophie he still told me that it wasn't going on prior to the separation. As much as it pains me to say it, I think he's bullshitting me.

One of my many faults has always been that I'm too trusting. Some might even go as far as to say naive. I'm working on that though. It hurts that I think he lied to me. Last weekend he went to Montreal with her and didn't even mention it to me. He's drifting away (or being pulled away by Sophie) and I am really finding it hard to know what to do. Do I call him up and pretend that I'm not hurt by his distance? Do I sit back and let him get over the wild monkey sex part of this new relationship and hope he'll come back to us all? It's not just me he seems to be walking away from, it's our whole group of friends. We've all told him many times that it doesn't matter if Sophie was the reason for the split and that we'll welcome her and give her an honest chance.

My friendship with Colleen is extremely strained at the moment too. I honestly do feel a lot of sympathy for her but, and this is a big but, I can't be there for her because of the things she's said and done directly to me. A bunch of stuff happened prior to the separation but mostly since then. My feeling is that she needs to take some responsibility and stop playing the victim card. I hope that doesn't sound harsh. There are a lot of reasons that I feel this way but I won't go into them. Actually Bob *waves @ Bob* gave me the best advice and it has really helped when dealing with Colleen. We are cordial when we run into each other (which happens fairly often) and maybe some day we'll be able to be friends again but just not right now.

It makes me sad and I thought that by writing it all down it might purge some of the sadness.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Guess what I woke up to this morning? Dave and I pulled into the parking lot at his job at exactly 7am. I guess we're going to have to leave a little earlier on snow days. It took us almost an hour this morning. It was a very slow ride with lots of snow on the highway (the plows were out but going the opposite direction) and the fact that it was pitch black and the snow was hypnotizing didn't help. This is the first real winter driving day this year and they were talking about accidents already. You can sure tell who has their winter tires on.

All the school buses were cancelled because there's a freezing rain warning for this afternoon. Then tonight we're supposed to get heavy rain. WTF? Do we have to get every kind of bad weather in one day? At least there's no tornado or hurricane warnings. *knocks on wood* Can't wait until we sell our house and move closer to town.

On the radio this morning they were asking people what you'd do if you had $500 to spend any way you wanted. The female morning host said that she'd hire a maid service and that she thought that many women would think getting a maid service was better than sex. Now I'd like to have my house cleaned but I won't go THAT far. I'd likely buy some clothes (work type seeing as I just sent out another resume last night) and new running shoes for Dave and I. Somehow we both need shoes but just haven't had time to stop to get some. Anything left over I'd probably go out for a nice dinner and a movie. I want to go to the new Johnny Cash movie. I think it starts on Friday. So what would you do with $500?

Powerless again!

For the second Sunday in a row I was thankful that I didn't break down and sell our generator. Yesterday afternoon I was busy typing away on a particularly brilliant & hilarious blog entry (well not really that brilliant or hilarious but I was pissed just the same) when the power went out. It was really windy outside and after losing the power for almost 24 hours last Sunday during the wind storm I should have known it would happen again. The wind was worse this Sunday and I watched as a tree fell in the back yard. It made me grumpy. Actually, I think I was grumpy before the power went out but I feel like blaming Hydro One for my bad mood yesterday.

We ended up BBQing burgers for supper because despite the wind it was still pretty warm outside. After the race was over I packed up a bag and went to my friends house for a shower. I had been told that the power should be back on before morning but I couldn't take that chance and have to go to work without a shower. When I finished my shower at their house they told me that Dave had called about 2 minutes after I got in and said our power was back. Somehow I had a feeling that would happen but I'd rather be safe than sorry. By the time I got home Dave had the generator put away but he decided to leave the extension cords run through the house until the wind died down completely. Guess he'd rather be safe than sorry too.

Had a so-so weekend. Fell asleep at 8pm on Friday night. I was tired all week from my lack of sleep last Sunday when I didn't sleep well because I was dreaming that someone was stealing our generator. At least I wasn't topless in that dream. On Saturday afternoon we went to see a Texas Hold 'em tournament on the nearby reserve. We ended up having supper there because the poutine and wings looked so good. Later we went to our friend's house and learned how to play Texas Hold 'em. It was lots of fun. There were four of us who had never played before and just one couple who knew what they were doing. At the end it was Dave and I and another rookie in the last hand. He got us both on the last hand. Dave's not a card player period but he seemed to enjoy himself. Or it may have been anticipation. Earlier, when it was just him and I left in the pot, I told him that if he wanted to get lucky later he shouldn't keep betting against me.

I will sit down and try to recapture the sheer genius that I'd produced yesterday but chances are it won't be half as funny. *grin* Right now I'm in a rare busy period at work and I've got to get back to it. I can see that this is going to be like crack just like OT was for me at the beginning.

So this is where everyone's hiding!

Lately I've been feeling completely out of the loop around OT. It's my own fault. I haven't really had a whole lot of time to spend there this year. I feel like I just don't have time to keep in touch with all the great friends I've made on OT and after some blogsurfing/lurking I decided to break down and give it a try myself. Like they say, all the cool kids are doing it! *grin*

So welcome to Life According to lights. Hope you enjoy your visit and I promise I'll attempt to be an entertaining hostess. *snicker* Not as entertaining as I was in my dream the other night though. I woke up yesterday morning in a bit of a dither (hehehe, I like that word). In my dream I was hosting a dinner party but apparently I had no clean shirts or bras because I was topless! What a relief it was to wake up and realize that it was just a dream. Dave said that he thought it was a great idea for our next dinner party. He said I'd be the hostess with the mostest.