Here I Sit.

Thinking obsessively about office and living room furniture. Longingly about my trip to Ikea next weekend. As D. mentioned in his recent post, he and I don't do well with unsettled-ness, so we are eager to get things settled. I think I can live without having all our stuff back (numerous boxes are still in the post), I just need to be able to set up an office (as does he), get organized and have shelves to unpack things on and a couch to sit on. Then I'll be okay. I think.

There are SO many things to be doing, and I have about 2.5 hours till I have to do my out of the house work for the day. But I'm in my pajamas, blogging, at 9:17 am.

I went for a walk to explore the area around our place yesterday, and it's a great area! There's a trail running around a lake/river/bog area, with tons of wildlife, and beautiful scenery. It's a perfect trail for running. But now my running shoes are full of mud, because it just rained a torrential downpour a couple of days ago, and the trail was flooded in places. I'm glad there is a nice walking/running place close by though - especially one that is close to residential areas the whole way so it's a safe place to run by myself. Look at all this talk about running - I'm taking bets on how long it will be till I actually go running on the trail!!! Oi!

Well....off I go. I think I need to post an online graph of % of to-do list completed daily to motivate myself to get things done. Yes, I know. Nerd.

Long time coming...

Well, I've now been home a full week, and finally am blogging. It's been a bit overwhelming, and a bit crazy, and a lot of wonderful coming home.

Our little apartment is working out really well for us (or will be, once it has furniture in it lol!), we have a vehicle (thanks to some very generous friends), and both have jobs. My work stuff is still getting rolling, is all disorganized and hasn't settled in yet -which of course is making me batty, but it will all settle in in a month or so.

The homecoming was good, but hectic. I ended up having to make an impromptu trip to the interior to pick up a bunch of our stuff from my parents (my wonderful father in law came with me...ok really I went with him, since he drove and I slept), visited my nephew who is adorable and so old now, and had a stellar evening with Magnificent M. It was a fabulous night out, then came home to Victoria the next day. There wasn't time for anything else!

I just registered for the ABA (Association for Behavior Analysis) conference, which is in San Diego in May. I'm really excited about that - not sure how I'll pay for the flight yet, but then, maybe we'll just get a van and write "ABA OR BUST!!!" on the side and drive down in that...lol.

It is beautiful and sunny in Vic today, so I think I may go explore my new neighborhood after I get some studying in. There are lots of walking trails and parks around here. The rec center is close by as well. I'm excited to be back in the land of rec centers. There were NO rec centers in MA!?! You know here, every city has a few places with a pool, weight room, cardio room, sometimes ice rink, and offers all kinds of fitness and swim classes. You can drop in for somewhere between 2 and 5 dollars. There was NOTHING like that in MA! It was a full gym membership, or a 14.00 drop in fee at the YMCA. So, i'm happy to be able to return to the gym and rec center classes. One step at a time though!

I made it

I'm here in Langely now....after lots of travelling yesterday, Bastet and I made it safely home. Well, almost home, not quite to the island yet :-). Bastet was great through all the travelling, not a sound from her while driving, or while on the plane, and she was SO good when I had to take her out and carry her through security - clining to me for dear life, but totally ok, and not trying to get away or anything.

Bye bye MA, bye bye Shrewsbury :-) Hello Langley, and soon...hello Victoria!

Somehow, I went from having no plans for while I was here, to having every minute practically booked up. Today I have to go to the bank with my parents, and I get to go visit my great aunt, and later today my nephew. Then tonight D. arrives, and we get to run away for a night at a B&B, and then head up to my parents to pick up all our stuff with a moving van tomorrow. Then I"ll be back at some point tomorrow afternoon, then Friday a meeting for work, and off to M's for a night! I'm SUPER Stoked about that :-). My ears are burning to hear "STELLLLLLAAAHHH." Hilarious!

But that little schedule leaves almost no time for anything else! Good thing I'm coming over several weekends in the next little while. Oi!

Almost there...

I've finished work now, and the car has sold. It's almost time to head home. I had to say goodbye to my students on Thursday, and to my co-workers yesterday. It was hard, and there was lots of crying, but I am very excited to be heading home soon.

Last night a bunch of people from work all went out for Thai food and to go back to someones house for what I thought was just a typical night out. The Thai was excellent, and then we went back to one friend's house. I walked into the kitchen and there were streamers, and balloons and signs posted everywhere saying "We'll miss you T." I was overwhelmed. It was a goodbye party for me. No one's ever thrown me a party like that. They also knew me well enough to know that I would do back flips over the Ikea gift card they gave me (even though Ikea isn't quite the phenomenon here that it is in Canada). I absolutely could not believe it. We had a wonderful night - it was the perfect ending to my time here. I managed to hold it together while I was there, but when I walked in the door at home this morning (I stayed over night there), I finally realized I had just said goodbye to so many amazing people, and I cried. A lot.

As I mentioned, the car sold, for less than we were hoping, but just in a knick of time, which is a big relief! Now I just have to do the rest of the packing and somehow read, and hopefully study the material for my two exams on Monday. Oi! It's maddness.

Trudging along...

I shouldn't say trudging, because my parents are here now, and that is wonderful! We had an amazing dinner at 1790 (I've blogged about this before). I had pecan encrusted chicken, topped with apples and brie, with the most spectacular mashed potatoes and this amazing squash side dish (TO DIE FOR). I had Lobster Rangoons for my appetizer which were also wonderful. Dad chose a great wine, a real Zinfandel (not white) from the Nappa Valley, by Ruthurford Ranch. I've never had a real Zinfandel before. Mom tells me that the true Zinfandel's are only made in a particular region in the Nappa Valley, from grapes grown on 80-100 year old vines. Interesting!

I'm very much ready to be done work and getting ready to go home. I'm glad my parents are here, because I'd be going batty having to work this week and not being able to get everything done. Thankfully they are here to help with the packing and cleaning, and do things I dread like calling around to car dealerships to see what they'd give me for the car, in the worst case scenario that it doesn't sell. I've had three people show interest in the car, one offer significantly below the asking price, but still more than I'd get at a dealership. so, I'll have to probably make a decision in the next few days if no other offers come up. Sigh.

I can't believe I have to go back for a week of work tomorrow! But tomorrow will be my last 12 hour shift, and this week is it. So much to do, and I'm trying so hard to keep myself moving and motivated.

Big perk to having mom and dad here - I can use mom's laptop, which actually works! I don't have to walk away from it while it loads a page! Wow! lol not that I'm bitter :-)

Snow day?

Well, we finally got some snow....not as much as expected (only a few inches) but it's here nonetheless. Fortunately, I'm using my last 20 hours of vacation time and taking today and tomorrow off, so I don't need to trudge into work. So I can have a real snow day.

BUT - I was supposed to write two exams this morning, and the college that I write them at (that proctors my exams) is closed today due to the weather, and I cannot contact anyone there. The problem with this is that my exams are only available for a 3 day window - if you don't write them in that window, you get a 0. Today is the last day to write for one of the exams (and the first day for the other). So I've emailed my prof pleading with him to allow me to access the exam tomorrow or Friday, so that I can reschedule them. Oi.

The good part though is that I was really not ready for these exams - I let the studying get away from me, and was up till 1am last night studying, and woke up at 6am to continue. So now I'll shower and study my butt off all day, get totally prepared for these two tests, and start my reading for the next tests.

Though the warm cozy bed is looking very inviting. I'll go to the cafe accross the street to study so I'm not tempted.

Where in the world has my blogger life gone?

I was humming "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" as I typed that...Anyhoo..

I've been a blogging slacker lately. Various things occur to me throughout the day or week, that would be good blog topics, but I haven't quite gotten to the signing in and blogging part yet!

Updates:

We have found an apartment. After much adue, we've found a 2 bedroom + den place. It's ground level, and though it has a smaller kitchen, it does have a deep freeze, the extra den, and a nice patio. It also doesn't have a lease, so we'll have a chance to live in it for a while, and if we find it's not ideal, we can always find a new place. I am just SO relieved that we've found something. Daryl literally looked at/called/investigated close to 15 places in the last 2 weeks, taking up large amounts of time! The landlords at this place are also wonderful, and that makes a big difference.

I still, after reposting 2 times, and posting an ad on the bulliten board at work have not had one response about our car!! I'm so irritated, because I would give anything to be able to keep this car, because I love it, and it's in such great shape! But I have to get rid of it before I go!

My parents will be here in just over a week! I'm very excited to get to show them around, and have them visit. Our MA life seems like a bit of an island - no one from our west coast life has seen it, so it's exciting to be able to show them around, and have them here. It will be so helpful to have them here to help me get everything packed up and on it's way too.

Our landlord here (who is wonderful) has offered (and we've accepted) to buy all our furniture and everything else we want to leave from us before we leave. She'll be paying us literally exactly what we spent furnishing the apartment, which is amazing! I won't have to deal with posting things on Craigslist, having people come look at them, and worrying what to do with things I can't get rid of. Also, we know for sure we won't be loosing anything financially on the furniture part of the move. It also means I'll have a fully furnished apartment up until the day I leave!

My work is completely set up for when I return. I'm going to be working with two different supervisors, both of whom I've worked with before and learned a lot from, and both with clients I've worked with before, but in a different role. I'm very excited about returning and getting to work with these clients, and supervisors again, but in a different role, where I will learn so much.

I'm actually getting a bit sad about leaving. I will really miss the students I work with here, and I've actually made some good friends while here, that I will be very sad to leave. It's really funny. In 3 years in Victoria, I think I really didn't make more than 1 new friend completely on my own. There were people that I became friends with through Church, but not one person, really, that I became close with that I met through work or school or any other route. But, here, in 5 months, I have become quite close to a number of people, and it's getting a bit hard to think about not going to work here again. About not seeing them on a daily basis and going for our after-work pub nights, and watching grey's anatomy with them etc. I think it is the nature of this job though, in this setting. Our students and positions are very challenging, and we spend a LOT of time together. It would really be impossible to avoid making some close friends along the way. MA is just so far away though - I know I won't likely see them again soon. So, the sad part of leaving is finally starting to sink in. I'm still SO excited to go home, to see everyone, and to get started in my new work positions. Most of all, I'm dying to get home to my husband - life just isn't right without him. But, I am finally starting to feel sad about leaving - I think the realization that my parents will be here in just over a week has made the leaving part more real.

Long ramble. But that's where I'm at.

Brrrr!!!!!!

1) It is STINKING cold here. Here are the current weather conditions:

Wind : from the NW (310 degrees) at 9 MPH (8 KT) gusting to 18 MPH (16 KT)
Sky conditions : mostly clear
Temperature: 1.9 F (-16.7 C)
Windchill: -13 F (-25 C)

Pay particular attention to the temperature with wind chill. -13 would be cold if we were talking celsius. But it's -13 F. Which is (as seen above) MINUS TWENTY -FIVE Celsius. I think - no, I'm sure that this is the coldest weather I've ever experienced. My baby toe actually went numb while I was driving to get gas today. I was just running out to get gas, and then going to a cafe to study, so a) was not wearing appropriate footwear (slip on regular shoes, thin shoes) and b) Did not let the car warm up before driving. After I finished getting gas, and was driving to the cafe, I realize my baby toe was numb. NUMB. Like felt like it was "asleep" and I should get pins and needles if I tried to move it. No pins and needles - it was just frozen.

2) I had my eye exam today, and walked out with new glasses! I love them. I'm very excited. Unfortunately, the barage of eye exam stuff, and the new glasses left me feeling VERY nauseous and headachy all day :-(. I'm feeling a bit better now though, that my eyes have had a bit of time to get adjusted and recover.

3) Our current landord just called to see if we had "any" furniture left and said she would buy everything we have from us b/c a relative is moving into our apartment after we leave, and has no furniture. We had mentioned we'd be selling it, and she was interested, but then said she wasn't sure so we should post it on craigslist and try to sell it. Anyhoo - I haven't posted anything yet, so this means a) No posting b) No hanging around for strangers to come to my apt to pick up furniture c) I will have a fully furnished apartment right up until the day I leave and d) A guarantee that we'll make back some of the money we spent furnishing the apartment. So this is very good. Now we just have to sell this car! I posted on Craigslist but have had NO replies yet!?! I'm going to post it at work too and see what happens.

4) I was off today, and I'm off tomorrow. That is, for the record, TWO days off in a row! My OT is done for now, and I haven't had 2 days off for several weeks! I did get some studying done, and scheduled my exams that I"ll be taking here before I leave.

5) I miss my husband !!! I know the next few weeks will fly by, but I really really miss him!

6) I MUST get around to trying to make Bastet stay in her airline carrier for a while, and attempt carrying her around in loud busy places with it. I'm kind of avoiding it. She's going to hate it. M - maybe we could develop a shaping procedure together?? We could market the program and pay for our ABA conference attendance. lol!

Paper Clip Needing a new home

Check out this posting on craigslist!

This one's for you M...

Ahhh...the good old days.



Classic.

Nerdy Excitement

Today, I just picked up the textbook for one of my masters classes that start January 17th. It's titled "Single Case Experimental Designs," and though I have it on good authority that the first chapter is excruciatingly dry, I am extremely excited. It was kind of like Christmas. There is nothing like cracking open a new text book for the first time. I really love school. I love my field and learning more about it. I'm just a nerd. I think I'll tackle that first chapter this week.

Also - can I just say one more time how much I love Trader Joes? Here are a few highlights from my latest trip through their isles (I didn't buy it all, but these are my favorites):

Frozen Chicken lasagna - with whole wheat noodles, veggies, chicken and ricotta. So good!
The "Salsa combo" in the produce section. A container including tomatoes, lime, chilie pepper, and garlic cloves for 1.99.
David Glass 77% Less Fat Chocolate truffle cake. UN-BE-LIEVE-ABLE. I did buy this. Only six dollars, and I kid you not, absolutely the best dessert I've had in a long time. And only 4 points per piece!
Multigrain rice crisps - 17 for 2 points, and SO good and nutty tasting. Excellent with Roquorfort Blue cheese.

Love it.

Bits and Pieces

I rediscovered Chilean (is that how you would spell it?) wine tonight. See, when we were in BC - the land of wine being expensive - we often would try out a bottle of Chilean or Spanish wine, because usually they were some of the cheaper bottles of wine. We came accross some really great ones, that were better, in my opinion than many more expensive wines we'd tried.

Since moving here though, we've primarily bought the Charles Shaw 3.00 a bottle wine, and many of the Australian wines we really like, because they are so much more reasonablly priced here.

Tonight though, I wandered into the "Chile" isle at the liquor store, and thought "hmm..." So, I bought a bottle of Merlot from "Sunrise." It is wonderful. I must have some fond memories associated with very similar tasting wines, because the minute I took my first sip I was a) Thinking I'd forgotten how nice Chilean wines are - they have a very different feel to them ; and b) Overwhelmed with a sense of comfort and happiness. No, it wasn't the wine going to my head, it was definately some sort of respondant conditioning.

So, that made me happy.

I also went back to weight watchers tonight. Over the past year or two, between quiting smoking, finishing my undergrad, moving and now commuting by car vs. transit, I have regained enough of my weightloss to make me significantly uncomfortable. And WW works for me, really well. I remembered why when I went tonight. The leader at the meeting I went to was really really great, I loved her style, so I think I'll stick with this meeting time. So, back on the band wagon. Time to rebuild all the little good habits, and break all the little bad habits that have crept in and out of my daily lifestyle.

Funny but painful annecdote:

I sprained my baby finger today. How? I reached down to put on a shoe, and jammed my finger on the wall on the way down. Yep. It is SO painful! How could such a little digit be that painful! I've been shaking my head at myself all day.

My cat:

Has now taken to crawling onto my shoulder while I'm at the computer and rubbing her face up against my head and kneading my back with her claws. She is constantly almost falling off, and "pacing" from one shoulder to the other. It's really really funny, and completely endearing. I think she's definately under attention deprivation now that Daryl isn't at home while I'm at work. Poor cat, she's alone most of the day now!

I miss him too, lots.

Ways to distract yourself from thinking about your missing husband.

1. Go on a grocery shopping spree, and take advantage of on-sale, pre-packaged weight watchers food (which cannot be found so easily in Canada).
2. Attempt to find and download neccessary software to install printer on computer.
3. Attempt to install printer after downloading software.
4. Hook up sweet computer speaker system your wonderful husband left you.
5. Re-organize office space.
6. Vaccum.
7. Clean.
8. Eat left over fajitas from Chilli's
9. Eat Mudd pie from Trader Joe's.
10. Blog

Sad Face

Daryl is gone. I'm sad.

Everything, including the drive into the airport went smoothly though. He was able to take a lot of stuff in his checked and carry on baggage, which saves shipping costs, so that's good. The United people were more helpful and friendly than I've ever experienced at the airport before.

He picked up snacks from Trader Joes for the trip, including their turkey jerky. I told him to make sure he ate it before going through customs, to avoid reliving Magnificent M and I's "pepperoni" experience.

But the apartment is really quiet. :-(

Merry Christmas!

We had a good Christmas. We were able to webcam with both sets of parents while we opened presents yesterday afternoon, watched Micky's Christmas Carol, and had some yummy food.

We had:

Salad with the yummy caramalized bacon, blue cheese, pear, and a raspberry dressing.
Goat cheese and roasted garlic
Castello blue (like a blue brie) cheese, and brie
A beet/blue cheese/apple dip that wasn't all that spectacular.
Olives, pears, olive bread, crackers, and pita chips to go with it all.
Wine, of course.

So, that was our Christmas dinner. I didn't have much energy after a rough day of work, but I did find enough to have a bath with my new excellent bath stuff that I recieved for Christmas, and crawl into my new comfy flannel PJ's.

Today is a 13 hour work day for me, and all the kids will be returning from home visits, and coming down from the Christmas high, so wish me luck! We're supposed to be picking Danika up at the airport after work too!! Very late night.

Home Comforts

I just received this book in the mail from a dear friend for Christmas. When I was visiting her this summer, I was flipping through her copy of it and became entranced, and vowed I would have to buy it as soon as I got settled again! Of course, I had forgotten about it and not bought it yet, so I was thrilled to receive it in the mail!

It is an excellent book! The first chapter is titled "My secret life" and starts as follows:

"I am a working woman with a secret life: I keep house. An off-and-on lawyer and professor in public, in private I launder and clean, cook from the hip and devote serious time and energy to a domestic routine not so different from the one that defined my grandmothers as "housewives." When I want a good read, I reach for my collection of old housekeeping manuals. the part of me that enjoys housekeeping and the comforts it provides is central to my character."

It has been called the "joy of cooking" for housekeeping. It has information and "how to" instructions for just about every household task. It's kind of like having all your mothers, mothers in law, grandmothers, and grandmothers in law's collective knowledge about everything from deciphering washing instructions to making a good fire, to cleaning china and making a bed with hospital corners (there are pictures!).

I love it!

I have the ticket

Well...in a matter of speaking. I have the email that confirms my reservation on a flight from Montreal to Vancouver. My mom and dad are coming to visit right before I leave, and they'll be flying into Montreal, renting a car and driving here. We (along with Bastet) will drive back to Montreal to fly out to Vancouver. All of this due to a seat sale at Westjet, and their extra-friendly pet policies.

We just bought Bastet her airline carrier. It's a soft carrier that looks much like a duffle bag. She'll be able to fly in the cabin with me, under the seat in front of me, which is excellent.

Now, two months to get through! Can we have a do-over on Christmas and New Year's when I get home?? Lol.

Funny comic posted!

Check out the latest post on Vic's blog:

little shavings from my ration of light: why do I find this so funny? (Scroll up after you click on this).

Anyone who went to highschool with me (ehem, Bean, Rach, Sarah, Embo?) will appreciate this especially. I think the author may have lifted it off of a comic we drew in highschool. Hilarious.

New York New York!

A little belated, but now that our pictures are posted, I'll fill you in on our New York Trip. Some important points and highlights:

1) We drove into Manhattan. DROVE into Manhattan. INTO it. As in, we passed the empire state building on our way to our hotel. Seriously. As we drove over the bridge into Manhattan, and the city appeared over the horizon I felt fear like no other. We just kept yelling at each other "what are we doing?!?" "we are crazy people driving in Manhattan!" I have to say that, aside from looking for parking it was actually not that bad. There were ALOT of pedestrians who leapt out infront of vehicles at random moments. There were some who were just chilling in the middle of an intersection, only becoming visible when the car next to you veered into you to avoid running them over. There were lots of cabs, and yes, they drove like maniacs...but what we found was we kind of got into it. I would step on the gas and pull infront of a cab and slam the brakes on once in, and much to my surprise the cab would not hit me, and in fact seemed completely non-plussed by it. Then I would look at Daryl and say "Did you SEE what I just did!!?" It was intense, but almost in a good way. But very exhausting. Anyhoo....

2) This is the place we stayed in. It was central to everything right in the centre of Manhattan. It was beautiful, and really reasonable - if you're ever in New York stay there! It is a row of beautiful brownstones, gorgeous, vaulted ceilings and beautifully decorated. Ours even had a garden area out back!

3) Our favorite annecdote. As we proceeded through Connecticut on our way to New York, I realized I had to pee SO badly. So, I got off the highway, and we ended up on some parkway where there was no where to pee. We were looking around and I said to Daryl "Wow, I wonder what city this is...It's really big!" Then we passed the following sign: "Welcome to the Bronx." Guess what the big city was. Stellar. No, my sense of direction has never, and never will get better.

4) We had the true NY experience at the Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village. We went to a neat cafe across the street for amazing hot cocoa, then to the 11pm show in the Cellar. The scheduled comics ran till about 1:30am, but then Dave Chappelle showed up after the show and did about an hour long set. That was excellent. The other comics were okay, but there was a lot of vulgar, less intelligent humor, with a lot of audience ridicule (we escaped it thankfully). You could definitely see a difference between the experienced comics like Dave Attell, and Dave Chappelle and the others. After the show, we wandered through the village, and even at 2:30am you could still hear jazz music wafting up the stairwells of many clubs, and there were many people out and about. It was SO freezing cold though that after a few blocks of walking we decided to opt out and have our first NY Cab experience.

5) NY Subways are not scary. At all. Okay, well, Manhattan Subways between the financial district, Chelsea, and times square are not scary. I felt safer on them than I do on the sky train normally! Same thing with Manhattan. I saw no sign of drugs, violence, come to think of it I don't even think I saw one panhandler even anyone who looked homeless. I'm sure they were there, but I have seen a lot more of that stuff in Van or Victoria than I did while there. Again though, we were only there for a really short time, and in all the touristy area, so...

So it was great! Check out the pictures here. Click on New York Trip.

Another one...

You are Frankenstein!

You are a sensitive and misunderstood creature. You are incredibly kind and more human than people who were created through natural means. But unfortunatly, you have a nasty revenge streak and therefore everyone is afraid of you.

Take this quiz at QuizHeaven.com