You are in My World Now

Don’t you hate when home repairs don’t work?

Tricia — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:32:14 +0000

Darn! Darn, darn, darn!

In case you can’t tell I’m a little frustrated right now. I just spent some time writing a post on my other blog detailing how we tried to fix the constant drip from our basement shower head.

I thought it was fixed! My husband told me last night once he finally got the old faucet back on that it was fixed …. but, after a quick visit to the basement to see if the shower head had really stopped dripping I discovered that it’s still dripping. At a good rate too! The washers my husband put in didn’t help.

Darn!

We have NO spare money at all. I guess we’ll have to live with the dripping for a while longer (yes we do shut off the water supply to the shower, but it still drips!). It’s been dripping for years and I don’t want to leave it too much longer. I guess as soon as we do have a little extra money I’ll spend some time trying to Price Pfister faucets and Moen Faucets and try to find one that fits our budget.

It figures that when we can’t spare any money on household repairs something needs fixing! Has that happened to you?

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Summer’s off to a busy start!

Tricia — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:42:13 +0000

I’ve been so busy over the last month or more that I’ve barely been posting in my blogs. I think the hectic period is finally over and I can start posting more regularly on my sites. I hope it is anyway.

I guess life just got in the way of things and for the most part that’s a good thing. My husband and I have spent most of the last four or five weekends keeping busy – working in the garden (mulching, weeding, tidying – works done now), visiting family and doing things around the city like going to Woofstock, going to that big attempt to break the worlds largest guitar ensemble, attending two ribfests and one waterfront festival, a concert and on and on!

Do you find that once the weather starts to get warm and or the snow melts you’re life suddenly gets a lot busier? I’m not complaining, I love getting out and doing things, but I must say my blogs have suffered from my lack of attention!

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This Summer feels more like Spring

Tricia — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:27:15 +0000

Well I guess it’s summer here in Toronto … if you want to call it that. So far we’ve only had one week of “normal” temps. Otherwise it’s been cooler than normal. Last night it went down to 13 c (55 F)! That’s cold … that’s early spring temps!

It is supposed to warm up by next Thursday … but I hope that once it does get “summer” warm it stays that way. Weird weather!

Anyway … now that it’s supposedly nice out I’m getting outside more and taking the dog for long walks. I’ve been thinking about looking at the various types of ipods so that I can have some music while I walk.

Yeah yeah … I’m behind … don’t even have an iPod or any kind of portable music player. Sad really, isn’t it?

So for those of you who have an iPod already … which one would you recommend? I’m not really interested in one that plays video. If it happens to have that as an extra feature so be it, but I probably wouldn’t use it much. I’m purely interested in an ipod for the music. We also don’t have much spare money so an inexpensive ipod suggestion would be appreciated. Thanks!

Here’s hoping for a warmer summer around here soon! BTW is it cooler than normal in your area too?

Now that summer is here I’m not using my Wii as much

Tricia — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:08:39 +0000

In January I decided to buy a Wii console and Wii Fit. I’d heard that it was a good way to get in shape and I thought the idea of playing games that helped you be active rather than just sitting like a lump on the couch was a great idea.

So far I’m enjoying the Wii. I don’t use it as much as I’d hoped too, especially now that summer has arrived and I’m doing things outdoors, but in the winter it came in handy. Believe me,, if you live in an area that turns cold for months at a time and has a lot of snow a game that helps you stay active indoors is a great idea.

Now I’m starting to wonder about playstation 3. I wrote a post on my main blog, Tricia’s Musings, asking if anyone had both systems and what they thought of each and the feedback indicates that if you want to be active go with the Wii, but if you want action games and great graphics go with Playstation.

The reason I asked in the first place was because I’ve seen some games advertised on TV lately that sound interesting, but they are Playstation games …. so now I’m thinking about getting Playstation 3. Maybe … when I have some extra money that is. Perhaps I’ll find a friend with Playstation 3 and visit them and try it out first to make sure that I really do like it.

Do any of you have Playstation 3? Do you enjoy it? What are you favorite games?

The neighbor saga continues!

Tricia — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:32:59 +0000

A while ago I wrote about how our new neighbors have been driving me crazy. I think I mentioned that they had purchased a huge boat of a car (a Buick Regal – 30 year old gas guzzler!) and since it was there month to park in our shared driveway, promptly parked their new car in the driveway and left it there.

I think he almost decided to return the car a few days after he bought it because he found out that he’d have to do a lot of paperwork to get a license for the car since it’s not exactly environmentally friendly. Well … about mid-month I guess he got it all figured out and license plates appeared on the car … but still it sat and sat in the driveway.

Blocking the driveway is more like it since it’s wedged between our two houses in our narrow driveway. I can’t even get our garden hose past the car without my husbands help. We have to carefully pass the hose over about five feet of car – being careful not to touch the car since the neighbor is out there washing and polishing it pretty much daily! God forbid if we made a mark on it!

Anyway, I guess he called around and got some insurance quotes because they’ve started driving the gas guzzling car about once a week.

I’m just so frustrated with the huge car blocking off the top of our driveway. They also put their BBQ at the end of the driveway so they end up blocking the end of the driveway too. Argh!

Luckily … we get the use of the driveway in July. He’d better move that darn car! Oh and their young daughter told us that they might be moving in August … If the home owners continue to rent the house I hope we get better neighbors when they move.

Between what they’ve done to the driveway, how they treat their puppy and all the screaming and yelling I keep hearing next store I won’t be sorry to see them go.

My back is killing me after a day working in the garden

Tricia — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:18:30 +0000

I hurt my back on Monday and I can still barely move around two days later! Argh!

On Monday my husband and I spent several hours working in our garden. We weeded and I tidied up plants that were flopping over or crowding out other plants and then … we put about 17 bags of cedar mulch on the garden. Just the back garden … we still have to do the flower beds in the front. Groan!

My back, which has a herniated disk and some bone degeneration, was already hurting during the weeding process, but I pushed on and added mulch to the garden. By the time we finished my back was hurting so bad I could barely walk.

I went inside and laid down and after two hours of letting my back have a rest it felt a lot better, but yesterday it was stiff and soar and if anything it’s even worse today. Time to pull out the heating pad.

Right now I’m just lying on the couch, reading and answering emails and blog comments while watching TV. I know you shouldn’t lie down too much when your back is sore, but right now it’s the only thing that helps. I am getting up and stretching every now and then – so hopefully that helps too.

One of the emails I received this morning was from a friend asking me to check out a page about Decaslim reviews. She wants to lose weight and i guess since I’m a nurse she wants my opinion on this product. I guess I’ll be reading it sometime this afternoon since I can’t do much else other than work on my computer while lying down, read or watch TV.

Do any of you have a herniated or “slipped” disk? How do you relieve your pain?

Tired after a day at North America’s biggest dog Festival – Woofstock

Tricia — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:03:56 +0000

Our dog Midnight had an exciting day today. We took her to Woofstock. It’s billed as North America’s largest festival for dogs and oh boy … were there ever a lot of dogs and dog related items there!

My husband is a little tired, but Midnight (our Lab) and I are positively tuckered!

We walked outside in the warm sun for hours. Looking at every vendors booth, hoping to get a free sample here and there of things that our dog could use. We did get two packages of free dog food, and some promotional tote bags but that’s about it as far as freebies go. We got more freebies last year, but of course we went on the last day of the event last year so I think the vendors were trying to clear out their booths! Hmm maybe we should go again tomorrow at about 5 pm – an hour before closing?

Our dog made out well though. She met lots of other dogs and came home with two mammoth bone, a stuffed bone, a beef knee joint, pigs ears and a few small bags of dog treats as well as two new leashes and a new collar. She’s set for a long while!

Tomorrow we’re going to go to the end of the Luminato festival on the waterfront here in Toronto and next weekend we’re going to an outdoor concert. Toronto has so many great things to do … I’m sure we’ll find something interesting to do pretty much each weekend of the summer. I just hope that I don’t keep coming home from these “events” as tired as I feel tonight!

Time for a home town visit?

Tricia — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:46:19 +0000

Do you ever get homesick? I think I’m starting to become home sick. I haven’t visited my home town since 2005 when I went to one of my remaining aunts birthday parties (she was turning 80).

My brother still lives in my home town of Ottawa, but other than him, my aunt and her children I don’t have any other relatives there anymore. My mom died in 2004 and that ended all regular visits. When she was alive my husband and I tried to visit every two weeks (five hour drive each way from Toronto).

My husband is trying to book off for his vacation time. We’re hoping he’ll be able to book off for the last week of July and the first week of August. Perhaps some time during his vacation we’ll drive to Ottawa to see my brother and other relatives.

I’d kind of like to see our old house where we all grew up, but I’m sure that will bring back some painful memories. Not that my time there was bad or anything, in fact I had a great childhood and got along well with my parents … but it’s kind of sad since they are gone and the house is no longer ours.

If we do visit Ottawa I’d want to go to the Experimental Farm and Dow’s Lake. It was was walking distance from our house and I spent a lot of time there as a child going to see the farm animals and skating and boating on the lake and of course the Ottawa Canal. I suppose I’d probably find a reason to visit the Westgate Mall which was near my house as well. Just for old times sake.

If you no longer live in your home town do you try to go back for a visit every now and then or are you like me … haven’t visited for 5 or more years?

My Husband is NOT a Guinness World Record holder – unfortunately

Tricia — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:30:22 +0000

I was hoping that I’d be able to announce that I’m married to a Guinness World Record holder this evening, but I’m afraid that I can only say that my husband attempted to break a Guinness World Record and unfortunately failed because enough people didn’t show up. Shame.

Sp what am I talking about? Well, earlier today a large group of guitarists gathered at Toronto’s Dundas Square in attempt to break the record for the largest guitar ensemble. They needed 1803 guitarists to break the 2007 German record of 1802 guitarists playing Smoke on the Water, but they were apparently short by about 123 people.

My husband was disappointed when he came home, but he still said he had fun playing Neil Young’s Heartless and meeting several other guitarists. Oh well, maybe they’ll try to break the record again next year. He was so excited too … he even wrote a post about the attempt to break the world record on his guitar blog.

I was going to go to watch the event, but I wasn’t feeling all that well. Remember I have Crohn’s and it’s acting up lately. To tell you the truth I kind of feel like I’ve taken a colon cleanser today. That’s what life with Crohn’s is like.

If Chris had only been going downtown for an hour or so it wouldn’t have been that bad, but registration was supposed to start at 2 p.m. and he heard on the radio at noon that people were already starting to gather so he left at about 12:30 pm. All the guitarists didn’t start playing the song Heartless until 6 p.m. so that would have been a lot of standing around for me. Still … I would have liked to have gone as I’m sure I would have taken some cool pictures of all those guitarists.

Neighbors starting to drive me nuts!

Tricia — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:07:14 +0000

Do you like or even know your neighbors? Sometimes I feel like we know our neighbors too well and most of the time that’s not a good thing. Not at all!

We know most of our neighbors because my husband is Mr. Friendly. So friendly in fact that I often call him Mr. Flanders (from the Simpsons) and I’d swear I’ve heard him call out “Hi de ho – Neighbor” on occasion! So yeah … we know everyone for blocks around, half due to my husbands outgoing friendliness and half due to the fact that the two of us work at the hospital just down the street and we’ve both taken care of many of our neighbors over the years in the ER (me), day surgery or on the various medical floors of the hospital.

Our newest neighbors, the renters that moved in next door in January, are really getting on my nerves lately.

They bought a Lab/ American Bulldog mix puppy shortly after falling in love with our Lab, Midnight, and I fear for the poor little thing. They let it out in their backyard unattended and it’s eating weeds, wood and all kinds of things. That pup is going to have a bowel obstruction soon. Also, their gate doesn’t lock properly so this week their puppy has gotten out and ran to the front twice! Luckily yesterday when it happened the first time I was outside with my dog and the puppy ran right up to us … otherwise he might have ran out into the busy street.

On Saturday the guy was walking their puppy and he let it get too close to a dog that was fenced in it’s own backyard. The dog bit their puppy in the face! Did my neighbors take their dog to the vet? Nope! They asked me for advice since I’m a nurse. My main advice was to go to the vet fast as I though their puppy needed stitches, but I also gave them betadine to put on the wound to keep it clean. Anyway, by the next day the three holes in their puppies muzzle were infected and pussy, probably because they’d let the dog play outside in the dirty weedy garden. They finally took their pup to the vets on Monday and it’s now on antibiotics.

Then … last night they bought a used car. We share our driveway – alternating driveway use each month since the drive way is short and narrow and only one car can be parked in it at once. So they bought this old boat of a car (they now have three or four cars!) and wedged it in the driveway.

I say wedged because it’s wider than the driveway and we can’t even walk down the driveway beside the car because the car is only about half a foot from each of our houses! Grrrr! So what now … gee, when I need to water my lawn and front flower beds I’m going to have to ask them to move the car so I can get the hose between the house and their boat of a car? Sigh!

They also have two daughters. One is a ten and she’s been asking my advice about dieting and reading Colonix reviews. She’s only 12 and I don’t want to hurt her feelings but I’m starting to feel like a professional adviser what with all the questions she’s asking … not to mention her family asking us all kinds of dog car and training advice (and then not using it!).

Do you have neighbors that just make you shake your head in wonder at the things they do?