Ah yes, retail therapy, that thing we all hope will help us feel better but actually doesn’t.
Well… at least my feet will look good! 😛
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Snow Day
4 FebProof we had a snow day in February. Well, our version of a snow day anyways lol We are a tad spoiled over here weather wise. While the rest of the country freezes and gets buried under inches of snow this is all we got and it was gone by the next day. *shrug* Whatcha gonna do?
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Cat Day
24 JanToday was my one day off this week and I chose to spend the day being lazy, who says I don’t know how to live my best life? 😉
You may be thinking a lazy day meant I slept in but you’d be wrong. 😛 I was actually up early, distressingly early, le sigh, but that’s ok because it meant I had ample time for a nap on the living room chair and there’s just something about a good nap that is so decadent feeling.
Not only did I have a late morning nap but I also dozed off in the afternoon, and almost again in the evening. I forced myself to get up when I started to doze off that last time because I do have to be able to sleep tonight ya know. Today may be lazy but tomorrow is me working both jobs and hopefully squeezing in a workout so ya know, the total opposite of today.
Guess which day I like better! lol
When I was forcing myself to not nap that third time I looked at the cat and realized I was living my cat’s best life. This is basically how he spends his day, minus watching Netflix that is. He naps, gets up to go to the bathroom or get something to eat, then relaxes, then falls in to another napping session, aaaaand repeat.
Pro-Level napping!
So, my lazy day was actually me doing my absolute best imitation of my cat.
Man do I want my cat’s life! lol
The only difference was by the end of the day I did a bit of decluttering in the bathroom and I caught up on some work emails because I won’t have time tomorrow before job number 1 starts. So I guess I didn’t quite have a work free day today, but most of it was free from work and since I spent most of it (or so it seems) in various levels of unconsciousness I really can’t complain.
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Sick Days
7 JanStaring down a serving of NyQuil is like staring down a shot of Tequila. You know it isn’t going to taste great, but it’ll help you attain your immediate goal, and then you’ll pass out.
We are 7 days into 2019, how is your New Year going so far?
Mine was going great until the evening of day 3 when I went from healthy to sick in the span of around 20 minutes. It is amazing how quickly your body can go from healthy to fevered and sick isn’t it? I assume the pesky germs that took me down had been fighting my immune system for a couple days, silently sneaking through my body and killing white blood cells whenever there was an opportunity, and when there was a weak spot in my defences they charged the wall and squashed a whole lot more of those white blood cells, thereby winning the battle against my immune system.
The battle but not the war!
With the aid of vitamins, Airborne (I swear by that stuff), a lot of sleeping, chicken noodle soup, and of course NyQuil, I am on the mend.
However, having four of the seven days of 2019 being sick days means I don’t have a whole lot of interesting things to write about. Le sigh.
I know it is old news by now but my New Years Eve was a lot of fun, I won tickets to a party downtown and it turned out to be pretty good. There was live entertainment, alcohol, a great view of the fireworks, and it was all inside a not overly crowded space so I didn’t even have to freeze my butt off at midnight. I think a good New Years Eve is mostly dependent on who you spend it with, if you’re with someone you want to be with and you have fun with, odds are you’ll have a good time. We could have done pretty much anything and had fun, it was just a happy perk we had such a good spot for the fireworks. 🙂
Then it was a couple days off from work, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and juuust before I was to head back to work I got sick.
So ya see, not much to talk about.
My mom reminded me to make this dish she used to make me when I was a kid and sick. It is warm milk poured over bread that has been cut in to bite size squares and sprinkled with sugar.
It is so simple, and yet so comforting. It however doesn’t photograph all that well lol I pretty much lose my appetite when sick so when she mentioned this dish I thought it would be ok to make, even if it is just carbs and sugar lol As with all dishes that my mom makes, her version is better, but this wasn’t so bad.
I’m hoping it isn’t raining tomorrow so I can go for a bit of a walk, get some fresh air in to these lungs, and get out of this apartment for a bit, I’m soooo bored, and yet, randomly napping throughout the day, so not quite fit for jumping back in to the swing of things just yet. Soon though, and then hopefully I’ll have more interesting things to blog about!
Hope your 2019 is starting off healthier than mine! 😀
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It’s Christmas!
25 Dec
Merry Christmas!
If you don’t celebrate Christmas than have a kick-ass December 25th just because lol
May you all have a happy day filled with love, time with people you care about, cuddles from your pets, and a feeling of contentment and joy.
And if all that is too much to ask for, just try to have a lovely day, however you choose to accomplish that. 🙂
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Some Edmonton Stuff
24 DecI’ve been in Edmonton for 7 days and have a smattering of random pictures I thought I’d share. None are all that special but ya know, it’s my blog and I can put on it what I like…assuming the cat approves that is! 😉
I’ve been to West Edmonton Mall I think four times now? It is one of my happy places lol Especially at Christmas, with all the decorations and sales…I try my best to ignore the crowds and line-ups. Sort of my own version of rose coloured glasses, only they are covered in glitter from wrapping paper. 😉
Some decorations from WEM. There are way more but taking pictures in the mall basically labels you as a tourist so I only took a couple.
Apologies for the glare on the glass when I took the picture. That is the empty wave pool at the Waterpark (inside WEM). I’ve never seen it empty like that, it was so weird.
There was a petting zoo in the mall on one of my trips and I couldn’t resist pictures of the goats and the one and only pig. I find pigs adorable and wish I could’ve gotten closer but I don’t go in to petting zoos since I have no desire to smell like barnyard animals.
Cotton candy shaped to look like a unicorn. Why? Because I thought it was cute lol
December 23rd is my birthday and I was lucky enough to get two desserts! If I’m not careful I’m going to have to be rolled through the airport on my way back lol
My mom made a Victoria Sponge for me, one of my favourite cakes. 🙂 It is two layers of sponge cake with jam and whipped cream in the middle. Oh, and topped with icing sugar. Simple yet lovely.
Then when I was out with friends we went to a restaurant and I got some chocolate, because what is a birthday without chocolate I ask you?
And yes, I ate every bite. Yum!
I had a day spent with my nephews, one at a time since they are not really at ages where the same activity will do for both of them. With the younger one we built a gingerbread train. The original plan was to ice it blue because he wanted it to look like Thomas the Tank Engine but once he tasted the icing he wanted minimal decorating because he thought he’d be able to eat any left over icing lol Kids right? So the icing eating didn’t happen, but the decorating kinda did…
All in all it has been days filled with simple fun, more focused on time spent with friends and family than anything else, which is exactly how it should be. 🙂
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The Traveling Cat
19 DecThis cat of mine is a decently well traveled cat. Sure he hasn’t left Canada but most cats stay in one city their whole lives and this little guy keeps going back and forth between BC and Alberta. Not only does he travel he does it in style, and with such attitude!
Our drive to the airport was uneventful, as was the rainy walk from the parking spot to the shuttle that took us to the airport. During check in the person working kept trying to make him meow, she’d lean down to look him in the eyes and meow at him. Striker was having none of that and just stared her down each time. But when I leaned down to check on him he’d give me a little meow, I swear he only did that to annoy the person working lol
The airport was surprisingly quiet so check in was quick, the line up for security screening was short and fast moving, all was going great…until!
See, Striker is what you call a nervous traveler. But it isn’t that he is nervous so much as he will go bat shit crazy and try to run away if he hears a dog bark when he is out of his carrier. For those of you who haven’t traveled with a small pet, when you get to security you take your pet out of their carrier and carry them through the metal detector while their carrier goes through the x-ray machine. I find it highly annoying, as does Striker. There was an incident one year where a bin dropped which caused a dog to bark which caused Striker (who was in my arms) to leap out of my arms and desperately try to run away. Only because he was wearing a harness that was attached to a leash that I was holding on to did he not disappear in to the airport. Since then I tell security he is a nervous traveler and we get a private room for his security check.
Someone holds his carrier while I go through security. Once I am cleared I get Striker back and we go in to a private room so he can be brought out of his carrier. I hold Striker while someone takes the carrier back to x-ray for it to be scanned. Striker and I aren’t left alone, and depending on who is watching us Striker may or may not be patted down. I’m not even kidding about that!
Now that I’ve bored you with that explanation let me get back to the story!
We get to security, I tell the guy I have a nervous cat and we need a private room and he looks at me blankly, so I repeat myself and still nothing. He calls over a supervisor and I make the same request to him. Supervisor doesn’t know what I’m talking about either. Sigh. So I point towards where the room is and I explain, slowly, my cat can’t be taken out of the carrier here, we always go in to that room so he is less stressed while you guys x-ray the carrier.
I don’t know that he believed me but he seemed ok to go along with it. He takes the carrier, I go through security, he calls over a second person and gives her the carrier, we all go to the private room (which is a glorified closet), I take Striker out of the carrier and feel the need to explain that Striker is wearing a scarf because he likes it, not because I’m forcing him…something else I don’t think they believed lol One of the ladies watching over us just kept staring at him, like a cat is an exotic animal or something lol while a different lady swabbed me for contact with drugs then patted down Striker, something he didn’t approve of.
After security Striker and I had a smooth time. We were early enough I had time to get some soup and a drink. I tried to take a picture of Striker in his carrier but each time I tried he turned away from me, he is a master at the silent protest.
Once on the plane a miracle happened, I had an entire row of seats to myself!
So much room!
It is hard to tell in the picture because it is so dark but that is the empty row beside me. It was lovely. 🙂
There was a classic Vancouver send off…rain…
My window view…
I got Striker settled under the seat in front of me, by this point he is basically resigned to his fate.
Striker, ready to go!
A short nap, some boring tv, a snack and a drink later, and boom! We are in Edmonton!
My Edmonton view from the plane…
Where’s the snow??
It was surprisingly warm when we landed and there was a distinct lack of snow and ice, this can’t possibly be Edmonton in December!
Because I didn’t have to wait for other people in the row to get sorted I was able to grab my backpack from the overhead bin and get Striker out from under the seat in front of me and be all ready to go once the doors opened. So I was one of those people that is standing there awkwardly, waiting for the doors to open, and now forced in to close proximity to other people who are also standing. A lady from a row back noticed Striker and commented she saw him when we came on to the plane but he was so quiet she completely forgot there had been a cat on the plane. Which started a conversation about traveling with pets, specifically with cats, and just talk about cats in general. By the time we were able to move there were about 6 of us, all crammed awkwardly together, chatting away. Travel sure does make for interesting situations lol
All in all, Striker did great, the people on the plane who saw his scarf thought he was adorable, he was quiet and seemingly pretty chill the whole time…I think he keeps himself occupied by imagining all the ways he is going to kill me once we are at our destination. 😉
And now he is here, at my parent’s place, stealing chairs and keeping us all entertained just by being his cute self.
He keeps stealing my dad’s favourite chair lol
My…I mean Striker’s bed.
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Cat Tales: The Scarf
17 DecLast month I wrote about my cat Striker hurting his neck and the bandaging we had to do so he could heal.
(Click Pet Parent Guilt to read all about that cat drama!)
When he got to the stage of no longer needing a bandage on his neck but needing something wrapped around his neck so he couldn’t scratch at the area while it finished healing a friend at work came up with a brilliant idea and knit him a scarf.
Can you believe that? I was going to go buy dog bandannas and she knit him a scarf! An amazing scarf that he absolutely loved.
It’s confusing because he doesn’t like wearing things, ever, but he took to this scarf and was really enjoying it. He could take it off easily, he just chose not to.
He is still a cat though and cats scratch their necks, which means Striker was scratching at his scarf. Not in an attempt to get it off, and he didn’t seem in distress or unhappy, it was like a habit or something. He learned if he scratched at it he could twirl it around his neck which quickly became a fun little game to him. But hey, whatever keeps that scarf on his neck I’m down with!
Because he was scratching at it he started fraying the scarf, plus it was a little big for him, so my friend made him a second one, a bit less wide and a bit longer with a snap closure at the ends.
The day I brought it home I was petting Striker, he was purring, then I took his old scarf off and he immediately stopped purring and looked so upset. I tried comforting him but he was having none of it, I took the new scarf and started wrapping it around his neck and boom! Purring!
He’s such a little weirdo lol
This second scarf is a much better fit, he loves it more than the first one, and even though he can take it off he almost never does. The rare times he has removed it he has used it as a pillow so it doesn’t seem like he is trying to get away from it, just cuddle with it. He has frayed this one quite a bit also but lucky for me my friend is making him a third scarf which he will hopefully have in time for our flight tomorrow.
This second scarf, oh man, the other day he was on my lap and not settling so I thought I’d take the scarf off and give him a good neck scratch. Well, bad move me. As soon as the scarf was off all he cared about was the scarf, he was nosing it, pawing at it, trying to get it back. *rolls eyes* I put it back on him and what does he do? Immediately settles down and has a nap on my lap.
Something about these scarves!
That is his grumpy “you woke me at 5:30am human!” face, not a grumpy about the scarf face, I swear!
The next three pictures are of Striker with his second scarf, isn’t he dashing?
I wonder if he likes it because it keeps him warm and our place is a bit chilly? Or maybe it is comforting, the way a child hugs their teddy bear for comfort? Or maybe he is just a tad bit special and I should stop trying to figure it out because it is just so darn cute!
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4 Pairs
16 DecI seem incapable of travelling and taking any less than four pairs of shoes. Why four? I have no idea!
I am packing for a Christmas trip, and by packing I mean I am sitting here blogging, but ya know, close enough, and trying to figure out how to cull weight from my suitcase. I’d love to say an easy one would be to remove shoes but they all seem so necessary…even though logically I know they aren’t lol
My packing process always starts with a mental list of things I want to take, and that list always starts with shoes. Why pick outfits first and then choose shoes to match when you can pick shoes and then more shoes and then get an overweight bag?
To be fair, not all the weight in my suitcase is due to shoes, I have Christmas presents in there, and 6lbs of coffee…don’t ask, it’s a long story lol
But yeah, I always start with the shoes…
So this year I was determined to not go shoe crazy, after all, I need room to bring home the new pair I will probably buy when there. 😉 I managed to get down to three pairs, my workout runners, a pair of grey converse, and a pair of black ankle boots. Theoretically those options should cover all possible scenarios, and thick socks will make up for the fact that none of my shoes are all that warm and definitely not meant for Alberta winter. The boots are the heaviest so I’ll wear those, and if desperate I can easily fit the converse in to my carry on, save a little weight in the suitcase, but hopefully I won’t have to do that.
Hopefully. *crosses fingers*
Not my shoes, but you get the idea lol
Only three pairs of shoes coming with me, I’m already missing my cozy boots, and my red converse, and my knee high boots, sigh.
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Canada Post vs UPS
28 NovI know, I know, we are all cranky with Canada Post because they are on strike during the holiday season throwing all our parcel delivery dates out the window. But ya know what? Even though we, the consumer, are cranky, and the Canada Post employees are having a crappy time right now, their customer service is still amazing.
When I was out yesterday I got a phone call, I couldn’t answer because I was driving and I sorta forgot about it. Once I got home and was chilling I checked and it turned out I had a voicemail. I was expecting it to be a scam call because there had been no caller ID but instead it was my mail carrier, from Canada Post.
She left me a voicemail saying she had a parcel for me she didn’t want to leave at the door and was wondering if I would be home at some point today so she could bring it back to me.
The shock is real.
Can you believe that? I sure couldn’t!
I called her back, left a rambling voicemail about how I was home now but what time I was leaving and how I did have a parcel waiting for me when I got home so maybe she ran in to my land lord and gave it to him, or maybe there is a second one, I’m not sure, and then I left my number, thanked her I don’t know how many times, and hung up. It was quite possibly the most ridiculous voicemail I have ever left a person. *rolls eyes*
She texted back, probably grateful she didn’t have to actually talk to the crazy person, saying the parcel I had was the one she was talking about, she did in fact run in to my land lord as he was coming home so she left it with him.
This, is in contrast to when I was coming around the corner of the house last week and the UPS guy was delivering a box that had the word “Fragile” written on every side of the box in massive font and he literally dropped the box on to cement steps. And I don’t mean dropped from a short distance so it is no big deal, I mean from standing height he threw it down, the box made a huge thud noise when it hit. Pretty sure he wasn’t expecting someone to appear from around the corner and catch him being a jerk. Tsk Tsk UPS.
I’ll admit, I don’t know much about why Canada Post is striking, and I definitely made some of the jokes about how they always strike leading up to Christmas, and I also whined about parcels being late because of the rotating closures, but with customer service like that I’m just gonna keep my mouth shut because those mail carriers are doing a physically demanding job, that allows me to be lazy and shop from home vs going in to stores, and if they feel they need to strike to get fair treatment than who am I to judge? Plus, my mail carrier is awesome and I want her happy!
The all important parcel!
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 