My Flog for September 30

Well, it's all done. House all clean and empty, deposit check in my purse, and we are now, as Steve says, living in Surrey Lanka. Going to bed real soon. My cat is traumatised, and hiding under our bed. I hope he forgives me for this awful day.

I am so tired my mind isn't working, so I'm not going to blather on and on.The only good thing I can think off is that I can't remember what box out of 600 boxes has my bathroom scale.

• Breakfast - Toast and Coffee
• Lunch - KFC -chicken and chips
• Dinner - 1 slice Hawaiian Pizza
• Snacks - Diet Pepsi

...and that's all she wrote...

My Flog for September 29 + My Personal Fear Factor

Not too many words in me tonight, as it's just been one of the busiest days of my life. Tired just isn't a good enough word to describe how I feel, and my hubby is just as bad off. Tons of stuff done, so tomorrow may be a bit easier. Passing back the keys at seven in the evening, then we'll be off to start life in Surrey.

While walking to IGA this afternoon to buy a mop, I felt something crawl on my leg inside my jogging pants. I don't know what everyone thought when they saw this old granny doing the hippy hippy shake, trying to get whatever it was to fall out of my pants, but nothing worked. I grabbed the lump - I could actually see the lump, just on the side of the knee that suffered the spider bite a few weeks ago - and I tried to squeeze the shit out of it, but it was hard and unyielding. I don't know how I managed to squirm the rest of my way to the nearest washroom at our friendly neighbourhood A&W, home of the Wonderful Mozza Burger, but I did.

Imagine my surprise when I dropped my pants and realized I tried to execute the knot in the end of the cording that keeps my pants up. I guess they are a bit large on me, seeing as how the cord travelled down my leg and almost caused a heart attack. I suppose you are laughing - I don't even know why I'm telling you this - except I have to write about something.

• Breakfast - Toast and Coffee
• Lunch - 2 pieces of Pizza - the frozen kind you buy from the supermarket and then your husband pretends to be a delivery boy and you entice him to come in the house and share it with you, once again embarrassing your teenage son (except we don't have any teenage sons in the house any more, only a cat)
• Dinner/Bedtime Lunch - at 8:30 - Toast and Cheese, Milk, and 4 pieces of Howard's chocolate bar - he doesn't need it for his lunch box tomorrow because he's not going to work. There is just way too much stuff to do before 7 pm.
• Snacks - Diet Pepsi

My Flog for September 28 + Yawn

Some evil phantom changed the timer on our coffee pot this morning - last night, whatever - so just after 3:30am the light sleeper lying on the adjacent pillow nudged me - bloody sharp elbow in the back, one of his favourite motions - to let me know the coffee was just about brewed.

So at 4 o'bloody clock I was up drinking coffee and eating toast, because if there's two things I hate more than drinking freshly dripped coffee at 4 in the morning,  they are drinking old stale coffee, and making new coffee twice a day. And then, because I was up so early, Howard decided there was time for someone nice to make a fried egg sandwich for his lunchbox, so as I slumped and swayed in front of the stove using an egg turner for balance, I didn't really appreciate his advice on how to fry an egg properly. He's lucky he didn't end up wearing the egg. Two eggs, actually.

After he went to work, I would have gone back to bed - or should I say mattress - only he already had the damn thing leaning against the wall in the living room, with the pillows and quilt neatly folded nearby. (The bed has been dismantled for a few days, just so there would be another empty bedroom for me to clean, and we've been camping out on the living room floor.) So - I watched 2 1/2 The Sopranos (although I can't for the life of me remember anything that happened), and I knitted some stocking, and I washed the walls in the upstairs hall. Not so much left to clean now, thank heavens! Although I am finding that the first stuff I did wash sort of kinda needs more washing again. Sometimes, one just can't win.

• Breakfast - Toast and Coffee at 4am, 2 scrambled eggs at 10am. 
• Lunch - The last of the Chicken Soup thick with veggies - yummy
• Dinner - Toasted Cheese Sandwich, Tomato
• Snacks - Yogurt, Ginger Ale

It's a lot easier to not eat a whack of stuff when the cupboards are bare. I think we need a grocery run.

And FYI - proof that men design bus stop benches. This morning, 10 shivering degrees, cute skirt, bare legs - and a bloody metal bench. Enough said. Tomorrow may be better.

My Flog for September 27 + Losing the Losing Streak

• Breakfast - Toast w/Marmalade and Coffee
• Lunch - Half a Veggie Sandwich on Half a Whole Grain Baguette, Orange Pop
• Dinner - Pork Tenderloin, Oven Baked Fries, Yogurt
• Snacks - Hot Chocolate, Yogurt, tiny piece of Pie

As you probably know by now, I've completely lost it as far as calories are concerned, thus basically losing another month but not another pound. In fact, I have gained some back, although still in the 60's. I think. I hope. I have no excuses, except I'm always craving stuff, always feeling hungry even when I know I'm not, and sometimes just eating makes me feel better. Crazy, eh?

I'm hoping to get things going in a better way when this move is over, and we're settled in Surrey. I have no choice, since I gave away all my fat(ter) clothes. So I'm not going to fret over emotions for the next few days, just clean the few things that are left to clean, knit a bit on my fifth stocking, and enjoy the season premiers of some great shows - for example, I'm watching Glee right now. Lame, eh?

My Flog for September 26

Same old stuff, you don't need to keep on reading about me washing walls and going to work with unco-ordinating shoes, so I won't subject you to all that nonsense. Besides that, no one offers me sympathy, so I'm just not going to waste my words any more.

Today was crazy weather-wise, winds so high they were blowing our outdoor flower display down the street, and rain at times so heavy the drops bounced off the sidewalk like rain falling up instead of down. Not a lot of people braved the outdoors, so it was no problem at all finding a parking spot near our store, and we subsequently had the slowest day of the month. I don't think there is an award for that, but we did get a lot of restock and tidy-up done.

• Breakfast - Toast w/Marmalade and Coffee
• Lunch - Beans and Wieners (left-overs from last night), Yogurt
• Dinner - Fantastically delicious Chicken Soup w/Howard's home grown carrots and turnip along with lots of other yummy stuff, 1 piece of French Bread
• Snacks - Cranberry Juice, Banana Bread, Banana

I was so ill last night after sneaking that piece of Apple Pie just before I went to bed. Acid reflux for the first time in at least 4 months, and believe me, I won't be eating after dinner any more. All the stuff I used to think was so yummy now makes me feel yucky. Also, as you can see by my ever-growing lists, I'm back to eating some stuff again that I shouldn't be eating - and the scales aren't very pleased with me at all. Oh well. A new month in a few days, and lots of change for me, so I'm going to try to back on track!

My Flog for September 25 + Who Needs Traffic Signals Anyway?

Missed a day. Between work, and moving, and  cleaning - I will be so glad when the next few months are over and we have a new place to make into a home. Meanwhile, we are filling up Steve's basement with boxes and furniture, and filling up his garage with tools and boat parts - we have decided to get a storage unit next weekend to put an end to some of the 'clutter.'

On the way home to Richmond yesterday morning at an ungodly hour, while it was still dark and the rain was sloshing out of the heavens, and I was half asleep in the passenger's seat wrapped in my jammies, Howard says, "I guess we passed Scott Road, although I didn't notice it. Guess the light was green."

Well, that certainly woke me up. I hope to hell the light was green. So for the rest of the trip I had to stay awake and be the red-light watcher.

• Breakfast - Toast (French Bread Toast) and Coffee
• Lunch - Chicken Gumbo Soup and 2 packs of crackers, Yogurt
• Dinner - Beans and Toast - Maple Beans, not no-name crap
• Snacks - Raspberry Muffin, teeny tiny little taste of Howard's apple pie, Hot Chocolate

I was going to make chicken soup yesterday morning, having brought the remains of two chickies home with us, but after we got back I realized I didn't have a pot big enough to cook soup in. They were all tucked safely away in Surrey. So Howard decided our small roaster was big enough, and once again, he was right, but just barely. So this morning, before I go to work, I get to do the finishing touches to turn my chicken stock into soup, and wash the walls in our bedroom.  Plus of course finish watching The Soprano episode I started on Friday morning...so better go and get that started!

My Flog for September 24 + Tis a Workin' Man I Am - Well, Woman, but you know the song, right?

It's been a very busy day, first at home then at Surrey, and now it will soon be time for bed. Howard gave up a couple of hours ago, so he's downstairs warming up the sheets. It seems strange to say he's downstairs in bed, when he's usually upstairs in bed. Change isn't easy when you get old. If I go upstairs now to go to bed, I'll end up either in the attic or on the roof.

Back to work tomorrow, seems like I never had a day off. Next day off is Thursday, and Friday is the end of the month, so that's the day when everything has to be done. This means up early, work before I go to work, then home from work and work some more. If any of my friends or relatives win a lottery this week, please buy me a Molly Maid, and I will be eternally grateful.

I'm going to introduce my yawns to my pillow now. Good night, world.

• Breakfast - Cheerios and Coffee
• Lunch - Cheese and Whole Grain Bread, guess one would call it a sandwich
• Dinner - Chicken, Tossed Salad w/Thousand Islands Dressing, Coleslaw
• Snacks - Blueberry Muffin, Diet Pepsi

My Flog for September 23

A carby day. To heck with it. Nothing wrong with an overload of carbs, right? I deserve it, since I had to go in and work on my day off. Not that I minded doing it, since I do get paid.

Tomorrow I get to scrub and clean and wash stuff like walls and floors and toilets. How lucky am I at all? Not much. However, this house will soon be empty and clean, and nothing will stand between us and our new chapter in life but our deposit return. Who wants to party?

 This desk, which holds my laptop, my little TV and VCR, will make the trip tomorrow or Sunday, so I guess next week I'll be writing my Flog on the floor. I don't mean ON the floor, I mean on the laptop which will be sitting on the floor. Because I think most of our furniture will have made the trip by then. Oh well.

Big huge changes coming in our life - hopefully my Flogs will become more interesting in the future. One can only hope.

• Breakfast - Cheerios and Coffee
• Lunch - 2-egg Omelet Sandwich
• Dinner - Oven Fries, Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Lemon Sauce Pudding (mmmm)
• Snacks - Grapes, Yogurt, Diet Pepsi, Hot Chocolate

My Flog for September 22 + I Need a Brain Transplant - soooooo much

Some days are better over and done with. Best thing so far? I slept in until quarter after eight, which was unusual and very much appreciated. Then breakfast and an hour's dose of The Sopranos before I had to get ready for my appointment at LifeLabs to get my Holter Monitor installed.

Meanwhile, the rain was tumbling down in sheets, and the search for my umbrella was fruitless. Upstairs, downstairs, (in my night gown), I looked behind and under and over everything, before I realized that maybe probably and positively - Howard had packed the umbrellas and drove them to Steve's basement.

The rain also produced a huge number of people on the bus, and I ended up being a short stander-upper for a block on my first lap of the trip. Because I couldn't see where the bus was, I got off waaaay too early, and ended up clipping along half a block to the second bus, cane clicking, kitten-heels clicking, and slowly getting damp. Luckily enough, I made it to the next street minutes before the bus, and I was in plenty of time for my appointment.

If anyone laughs now, I will be very upset.

LifeLabs Lady: You don't have an appointment.
Me: Yes, I do. 10:30, Thursday, September 22. 2 Road and Blundell.
LLL: No. We only have one Holter Monitor and that's booked out for 11 this morning. Hang on.
LLL: (on phone....)
Me: waiting...waiting...waiting....my bus transfer runs out....waiting ....waiting.....waiting....my knee hurts....waiting...
LLL: Your appointment is at 2 Road and Westminster.
Me: No, the lady told me 2 Road and Blundell.
LLL: Well, you're supposed to be at 2 and Westminster. Can you get there by 10:30?
Me: No. I'm going home. I'll make another appointment.

I don't know what the other people in the waiting room thought when they saw this littler old lady clomp out, and hopefully they didn't hear anyone say F... It under her breath.

When I got home, I checked my notes. Gilbert Road. I was supposed to be at the LifeLabs on Gilbert Road. So if I had gone to 2 and Westminster, I still would have been f....ed, as there is no LifeLabs on 2 and Westminster.

Needless to say, I don't have a Holter Monitor. Maybe some day I will.

• Breakfast - Cheerios and Coffee
• Lunch - Banana and Peanut Butter Sandwich, Orange Juice
• Dinner - Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Oven Fries
• Snacks - Banana, Grapes, Yogurt, Bread and Jam (more than 1slice, less than 3)

White Bread - I've had a day of White Bread. And it was absolutely wonderful! Thank you Safeway, for making the best crusty Italian bread in the world!

My Flog for September 21 + My Exciting Evening - Not!

4 Christmas Stockings all knit - however, now I have a zillion ends to sew in, as well as adding all the embellishments that hide all the mistakes in my knitting (only kidding, I don't have any mistakes in my knitting. That's because I'm always ripping out mistakes and fixing them as I go. It sucks being a perfectionist, and thank heavens, I'm only a perfectionist when it comes to my knitting.)

Tonight may be very stressful, as there are so many season premiers on TV and I don't have the fancy TVO or PVO or whatever the heck it is. I DO have a VCR and hope to be able to record something while I watch something else, as long as I don't need the VCR remote to do it. (It's packed and probably over in Steve's basement, along with the dish I needed to make the scalloped potatoes. Oh my, how inventive we get at times. Scalloped potatoes in a roaster end up a bit dry and a bit flat and they cook waaaaaaay faster, long before the chicken, actually.)

However. The plan is to watch an hour of The X Factor, because I like Simon Cowell and miss him sooo much, and record the rest. If I can. I want to watch Criminal Minds and Law and Order SVU, and will watch CSI when it reruns in the spring, if I remember to, that is. My, I'm tired, just thinking of the next three hours!

• Breakfast - Cheerios and Milk, Coffee
• Lunch - PB&J on Whole Grain Bread, Little Tomatoes, Yogurt
• Dinner - 2 Chicken Drummies, Scallop Potatoes, Veggie Mix, Milk
• Snacks - Banana, Grapes, Yogurt Covered Dried Cranberries, Water

Guess I shouldn't have just given up my major blood pressure pills, as this morning my blood pressure was sky high, and this afternoon, I started having strange symptoms again. Oh well. Gotta go bother my friendly neighbourhood doctor once more and see if he can figure out this puzzle. Enough about me. 

My Flog for September 20 + Gordon Ramsey had Nothing on Me (and I don't mean the swearing part)

Howard just reminded me we only have 10 more days before we close the door behind us at this house. I'm not panicking. Yet. Most of my earthly  belongings are lying in boxes in Steve's basement, and I have started to wash walls, windows and such. I'm sure I'll get it done. I hope I get it done. I will.

 I had to cook dinner, as I got the feeling that Howard is tired of cooking dinner. After we got home, the meat stayed in the fridge while he puttered around this and that-ting, and when I inquired as to when he was going to start dinner, he said he was tired of cooking dinner. I can take a hint.  So I cooked some pork tenderloin with red and green pepper strips and onions, with a soy sauce 'sauce', and rice. It was really really good too. The worst thing about cooking a delicious dinner is that he could very well expect me to do it again some time. Every silver cloud has a dark lining.

I was going to wash more kitchen cupboard doors tonight, but I don't even have the dinner dishes done, and now Glee is on, and what can I say. Glee. Season Premier. Besides, I cooked dinner. Howard has never really accepted the universal rule that the chef doesn't do dishes. Except when he is the chef.

• Breakfast - Toast w/Jam and Coffee
• Lunch - Tossed Salad and Thousand Islands Dressing, Yogurt
• Dinner - Pork Tenderloin ( seems I ate half a pig) with peppers, onions and rice
• Snacks - Yogurt, Hot Chocolate, Diet Pepsi

My Flog for September 19 + Don't Expect Much, I'm Tired

 A busy day for me. Up before the crack of dawn, as usual. Before I went to work, I watched an episode of the Sopranos while I turned the heel of Christmas Stocking #4, then I started washing living room walls. I worked a full day at the store, well, at least I got paid for working a full day at the store, then after work, it was to the grocery store, then home for Coronation Street, dinner, dinner dishes, then washing kitchen cupboards. I'll be glad when this move is over, although I am not looking forward to the 90 minute commute and two transfers it's gonna take me to get to work.

• Breakfast - Whole Grain Toast and Coffee
• Lunch - Chicken Gumbo Soup from Subway, half a Veggie Sandwich left over from yesterday's lunch, and yogurt
• Dinner - Tossed Salad w/Baby Romaine, Red Pepper, Green Onions, Orange Carrots, and Green Celery - plus Thousand Islands Dressing, and one Sausage which was pretty gross. Don't tell Howard I said that, as he bought them and cooked them. From now on, he'll probably leave the Brown Sugar Breakfast Sausages at the store. Blech.
• Snacks - Yogurt, and yes....a CARB ATTACK - oops! oh well, if one is going to do something, one should do it well, right? A Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffin from McDonalds, which, honestly, was crap and has taken away the desire to ever have one again, plus my Favourite - Carrot Cake from The Cannery Cafe. I need carrots, my eyesight isn't very good any more.

My Flog for September 18 + Feeling Groovy, and Digital Blues

Sooooo - feeling better today, no thumping, fluttering, pitter-pattering heart, no headaches (only the two-legged ones that come to suck one dry during a busy busy busy day at work), no dizziness. Good. However, now I'm worried that these pills were the ones that were helping me lose weight. What if they shrank my appetite? Turned me off carbs? What if, Heaven Forbid, they completely turned off my metabolism, and that's what's been keeping the scale so unadventurous lately? What if, now that I've stopped taking them, I once again blow up like a balloon, the week after I took all my too-big clothes to Value Village, and I'll have to go to work dressed in 10-year old Lycra Bicycle shorts and a one-size-fits-all T-shirt/nightshirt?

Let's just shake that image from our brains.

• Breakfast - Cheerios and Coffee
• Lunch - Cauliflower/Veggie Soup, half a Veggie Sandwich - lunch with my friend Ria at Steveston Bakery, nice.
• Dinner - A&W with my hubby. The only coupon we had that he would consider was 2 Poppa Burgers, 2 Fries, and 2 Drinks for 9.99. So I had me a Poppa Burger - but I transferred one of the meat patties onto Howard's Poppa Burger, so he absorbed half my fat and grease grams. I ate barely half the fries - they were very cold, and I drank not much of the crappy fountain soda. But that was over 2 hours ago, and I'm not hungry yet!
• Snacks - Yogurt, Banana, 5 Strawberries, Diet Pepsi

And to top off my day, I just spent about an hour figuring out how to hook up a digital receiver to my TV, since our cable provider went digital. However, after attaching the bloody coax cables to each of the outlets several times before I lucked onto the right combination (my usual routine, no matter what I'm hooking up), I find out that I still can't get higher than channel 28. Seems Shaw doesn't only want you to have a digital box, they want you to pay extra to use it. (Nasty bad words here.) However, we are moving in less that 2 weeks. I'm not going to go to the trouble of upgrading my cable for just a few days. I can still get Coronation Street, so I don't give much of a ....

My Flog for September 17 + Hypochondriac? Not Me...

Another early start, even if was Saturday and my last day off. It was raining all morning, and since a lot of boxes to be moved today were my treasures (knit and writing magazines & books, records, and such), it was very important (to me) that not one little tiny raindrop fall on them, so the big blue truck didn't get a ride to Surrey. Instead, Steve came over in his little gray car, and you'd be surprised how much he fit into that vehicle.

It reminded me of the time I bought a big old wooden glider chair from the thrift store, and he drove up in his Pony to bring it home. It was certainly very difficult to get it to fit. The trunk was way too small, so he had to wedge it into the back seat, which he did do successfully. He'll be thankful that when that same chair goes to his house, it will travel in the back of the big blue truck. It has become Howard's chair for sitting while he smokes his cigars, drinks his beer, and watches life go by.

Today I think I found the reason I've been feeling so crappy for the past few months. I'm in a sort of difficult position for working - I find it very difficult to squat or kneel, because of my knee, so I've been bending down a lot to do stuff. However, whenever I bow my head down, I get instant headache, and when I stand up, I get dizzy. When I complai...told Howard what was happening, he said that used to happen to him when he took his blood pressure pills - the same ones I take now, Ramipril. So I did some online research, and TADA - I have more than half the symptoms that tell you to go see the doctor immediately - if you have even one of them. So guess who's never taking these pills again. Moi.

• Breakfast - Whole Grain Toast (as usual) w/Jam and Coffee
• Lunch - Salad (baby romaine, tomato, red pepper, celery & cheddar cheese w/ Thousand Islands Dressing, 3 Breton crackers
• Dinner - 2 slices of Howard's Everything Special Pizza with the ham, salami, pepperoni and olives scraped off, 2 forks of the same salad as lunch, except I put Coleslaw Dressing on by mistake, which meant I had to wash it off and put the TI Dressing on instead, and then I ate the rest of it
• Snacks - Banana, Yogurt, Raisins, Diet Pepsi, and I gorged myself on Maltesers, eating the rest of the bag - probably 10 -15, I wasn't counting, but it wasn't a huge bag and this was the third day it was hiding (not too successfully, I'm afraid,) in the cupboard

My Flog for September 16 + 3 Discoveries

 3 new things I've discovered over the past few weeks:

1. I have a lap 
2. My seat belt doesn't disappear when I snap it shut
3. My thighs are longer than I thought

It's been a strange day. I left bussing this morning to do a few errands - picked up my Knitting magazines, my check (so I could afford to get my Knitting magazines,) and go to LifeLabs to have another ECG done, plus a heart monitor halter thingie to monitor my beat-y race-y heart for 24 hours. However, the lady at Lifelabs told me I had to make an appointment for the monitor thingie, so that was a wasted trip. Tons of thanks to the useless gal at my doctor's clinic for not telling me that, the useless gal who replaced Kathy, who's been there for years and knew her job inside out. I hate change.

Nevertheless, I am still packing for a huge change, our move to Surrey in two weeks time. There's not a lot of stuff left in this huge house, and the empty bedrooms upstairs have an echo residing in them. Still a few boxes to move - really important stuff - knitting books, yarn and my writing book library, mostly, plus some stuff that some people would classify as Junk. After this weekend, all the stuff that has to go home with Neil and Shannon, and all the stuff that has to go to Value Village, and all the stuff that has to go to the dump will be gone, and then I'll have the joy of cleaning an almost empty house.

• Breakfast - Whole Grain Toast and Coffee
• Lunch - Cheerios w/Milk, Yogurt
• Dinner - Pork Tenderloin, Tossed Salad w/Thousand Islands Dressing
• Snacks - 5 Maltesers, Diet Pepsi, Banana

My Flog for September 15 + And Nothing Else

• Breakfast - Cheerios and Coffee
• Lunch - Baloney Sandwich
• Dinner - Chicken Breast and Ceasar Salad
• Snacks - Yogurt, Banana, 1 slice Whole Grain bread with Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam, Diet Pepsi, 4 Maltesers

My Flog for September 14 + Absolutely Nothing Else

• Breakfast - Cheerios and Coffee
• Lunch - Beans w/Wieners
• Dinner - Mashed Potatoes, Swanson Beef Pie
• Snacks - Small Muffin, Yogurt, Diet Pepsi

Regarding Dinner - I could only eat about half of what was on my plate, and now I've got an upset tummy. Guess I'm not used to eating that kind of food any more, the frozen meat pie that I used to think was so delicious, and the mashed potatoes that just felt not right, and anyone who knows me, knows my true feelings for mashed potatoes.

My Flog for September 13 + A Bean By Any Other Name is NOT a Truly Good Bean

The weather's finally cooling down, which is fine with me. I like sweater weather, and high 20's for the past week or so were a  bit too uncomfortable for me at work. Which I wasn't at much, since I had to leave early two days in a row. Today I stuck out the whole 5 hours with not too much discomfort, so hopefully I'm on the mend. I'm sick of being sick.

A nice surprise - Esther brought me a basket of birthday muffins and cherry tomatoes. Nice. They padded out my snacks nicely! One at work, one at home.

We stopped at the store on the way home, looking for a quick dinner. No one felt like cooking, or waiting for a late meal, since I didn't get off work til quarter to six. So we decided on beans, wieners, left over sauteed onions, mushrooms and peppers from last night, and seasoned oven fries. McCain's, not Mine. When Howard mentioned beans, I was so happy, because I love beans. Heinz Beans. The Maple ones are my new favourite, and as I was looking on the shelf for them, he picked up the store brand.

"These are on sale."
"They're not Heinz."
"Doesn't matter, they're all the same."
"No, they're not."

And plop in the basket they go. It wasn't until I sat down to eat he said he didn't want any beans anyway. And they definitely were not Heinz. It wasn't hard at all to just eat a small amount of them, thinking of them more as a protein choice than a favourite food.

• Breakfast - Cheerios w/Milk, Coffee
• Lunch - Soup
• Dinner - Beans & Wieners
• Snacks - Yogurt, 2 small Blueberry Muffins, diet Pepsi, 2 Cherry Tomatoes

I'm heading off to bed soon. Maybe if I go to sleep I'll forget the hankering I've got for Heinz Maple Beans.

My Flog for September 12 + A Bit of the Shakes

It was really strange to be sitting at the computer at 3 o'clock on a Monday afternoon watching my Diet Pepsi swish in the bottle, and feeling my chair and the floor shake underneath me. No, we didn't experience an earthquake - at least if we did, there was no we involved, only me. What was happening was the rumble of giant trucks on all sides. The street behind us, just a house-on-the-other-side-of -the-backyard away, is having some pavement repair done, which entails ripping up the old asphalt, grinding the road base, then repaving. Takes lots of big trucks to do that. Then somewhere nearby and farther along our street there's a monster house getting built, so for some reason there were big beep-when-I-back-up trucks rumbling along on the way there.

I really thought there was an earthquake, though, for a few minutes, as the shivers were so intense. So here I sat, chatting on FB with Nikkie, considering my options. My first instinct, if it did indeed happen to be an earthquake, was to go down into the basement and stand in a doorway, but then I realized that's where the gas furnace and hot water heater are, so I didn't want to be that close to burst gas pipes. I never even remembered Howard's Earthquake Kit - the bully beef, spaghetti sauce, and barbecue sauce would have just stayed upstairs in his dresser cupboard.

I really don't know where I would have gone. Maybe out in the garage, in the doorway, as it's just about empty now - Howard moved 99% of his toys over to Steve's garage this past weekend. That would have been bloody bad timing, actually - getting an earthquake and/or a tsunami when  two kayaks and a canoe were twenty miles away, when I could have sat in one of these and felt a bit safer.

• Breakfast - Toast and Coffee
• Lunch - Soup, 2 slices of Whole Grain bread
• Dinner - Chicken Breast, new potatoes, sauteed peppers
• Snacks - Yogurt, Banana, Diet Pepsi

My Flog for September 11

I know it's pretty early to post, but I'm pretty sure nothing exciting is going to happen between now and bedtime, especially since bedtime is in the very near future. I left work early because I was, and am, feeling not so well. In retrospect, I'm usually pretty healthy, although I do enjoy complaining about the odd sniffle or the newfound creak, but today I just had to give into it, as I thought I was going to pass out by the glue section. And no, I wasn't sniffing it.

My co-worker figures it could be due to my humungously infamous spider bite, but I think it's just a bug - I know spiders are sort of bugs, but I mean those tiny little bugs that you can only see under a microscope. Thank God. Oh well, I'll either wake up tomorrow feeling better, in which case I shall return to work, or feeling worse, in which case I shall go see the doctor. The thought of doing either makes me want to stay in bed, and I'm not even there yet.

I'm working on Christmas Stocking Number 3, and although I spent a few hours this afternoon knitting, it didn't amount to much as I kept having to unknit due to mistakes, usually following a knit row pattern on a purl row. Concentration sure helps when you're doing intarsia - guess I shouldn't have been watching The Sopranos at the same time.

• Breakfast - Cheerios w/ Milk, Coffee
• Lunch - Chicken Soup and 2 bits of bread 'n' butter
• Dinner - Chicken Soup and 1 bit of bread 'n' butter
• Snacks - Diet Pepsi, Yogurt, Banana

I sure hope it's not the Chicken Soup making me sick...

My Flog for September 10 + Don't Even Ask

• Breakfast - Honey Nut Cheerios w/Milk, Coffee
• Lunch - Home-made Chicken Veggie Soup - and it was/is really really really good, yummy
• Dinner - 2 Slices of French Bread w/Jam - I already had my soup, and I've been grazing on and off all day, so I wasn't really hungry
• Snacks - See? Told you - Yogurt, Raisins, Diet Pepsi, you know these Strawberry Marshmallow candies that have sugar on them? The red ones? Well, some of these. Geez, is that all? I feel like I was snacking all day. Guess not. Oh rats, I almost forgot - two Bisquick tea buns with Becel and Jam. For the life of me, I cannot make tea buns like my mom's - they were called scones (rhyming with cons) and not scones (rhyming with bones, like the smart-asses around here call them.) However, I make do with the Bisquick recipe - I would pass them on as my own if I had to.

Okay. If anyone asks me, "How are you?" I'm not going to pussy foot around. Here is how I am:

1. I have a cold. A sore throat, a runny nose, a sneezing, coughing cold.
2. I have a UTI. If you don't know what these letters stand for, you are one lucky bugger. These are the letters that make you shiver when you pee, that make you squirm and rock to and fro, that keep you up all night just so you can go sit on the toilet and dribble while the tears roll down your cheeks.
3. I have the spider's gift that keeps on giving - A growing lump with a nasty black centre that hurts like the devil if I touch it.

And - people tell me that a spider's bite can cause the first two troubles - bloody spider. And I try not to swear any more.

Tomorrow I get to go to work again, oh joy oh bliss. Today I packed about a thousand boxes, soon there won't be anything left in the house except dust ... and spiders. I was smart enough today to pack the mixer (no more baking.) However, Howard was smart enough to pack the barbecue, so we can all figure out what that means.

My Flog for September 9 + Not Much Else

I'm okay, you can stop worrying. Howard came home from work early yesterday (Friday) and rushed me out to the truck for a trip to Surrey before rush hour really hit. We had a relatively peaceful ride, smooth flowing traffic, not too many reasons for him to swear at other drivers cutting him off, or crawling along slowly with the intention of making him miss the green lights.

After dinner, just as it was starting to breathe darkness, Miss Nikkie decided she wanted a Long John donut from Tim Hortons, and asked if I'd walk there with her. I said, "Sure, as long as we were home before dark," but as she was forever getting ready - ie, finding her sweater - it was almost dark before we left. I'm sure they moved Timmy's farther away - it seemed like we walked for miles and miles before we smelled the coffee. And then of course I had to eat a donut. And a Timbit.

• Breakfast - Aha! A change - because I ran out of bread: Honey Nut Cheerios w/milk, of course, Coffee
• Lunch - Grilled Cheese Sandwich (I found some bread,) Milk
• Dinner - Chicken, Potato Salad and Coleslaw
• Snacks - Grapes, Yogurt, Donut, Timbit

My Flog for September 8 + Happy Birthday to Me

For those of you who wished me a great getting-spoiled birthday, I thought I'd just keep a running list here of things I did today. Then you can decide.

• Liked the fact that Howard's first words to me this morning were "Happy Birthday." Disliked the fact they were spoken at 4am
• Had breakfast
• Knitted some stocking
• Washed a few dishes, wiped a few counters, same old same old
• Loved Gabriel, Arianna and Kayla's Happy Birthday photo
• 
  
• Watched an episode of The Sopranos, screw Shaw Bloody Digital Cable, I downloaded the complete series
• Checked a few boxes from the crawl space -Nikkie, I found all your cookie jars, you'd better start baking
• Listened to Paul Simon's Graceland - best of the best
• Got rid of two craigslisted boxes of books
• Emptied two bookcases and dragged them (or chased them) downstairs
• Found tight shoes that fit now - I would never had thought I had fat feet - well, I guess I don't any more
• Grazing all morning
• Loved Clayton and Tanner's Happy Birthday song on the telephone
• Really enjoyed fb greetings from friends and family near and far
• Peed - more than once
• Watched another episode of The Sopranos. My, I do have quite the life, don't I?
• Knitted some more Christmas Stocking. Got the reindeer face all messed up, so also unknitted some Christmas stocking. 
• Unhooked one VCR that wouldn't pick up any channels past 12 and hooked up one that would, so now at least if I know I would miss something on channel  28 I can tape it. Yes, I know I'm behind the times - now I am going to just stick George Jones in my 8 track player and wash my bobby socks...
• Neil, Shannon, Tanner and Dom just visited for a couple of hours - took home another load of  "stuff."
• Gonna have some pancakes for lunch - it's my birthday and I'll eat carbs if I want to (plus sugar and fat - my shoes probably won't fit tomorrow)
• Shoot, Howard will be home in half an hour - my nap just flew out the window. Rats.
• Doing absolutely nothing
• Loved talking to my lovely sister via telephone, and sorry I missed my lovely sister-in-law's call
• HOWARD TOOK ME OUT TO DINNER - and I had a Birthday Bounty Bar for dessert. Aren't I the lucky one?
• Now I'm totally immersed in Coronation Street - happy happy day!

Since I used all these bullets for my day, we'll just list my flog: 

It went like this:

toast, coffee, grapes, granola bar, pancakes, diet pepsi, chef salad w/thousand islands dressing, garlic bread, bounty bar, potato salad

It doesn't look too bad written this way. But I will admit - I haven't been hungry all day!

My Flog for September 7 + My Wonderful Day

Shaw Cable has now gone digital, and I'm not buying a digital box for three weeks, as we will be moved out of here by then. So this morning, in the middle of The Sopranos, I got a message saying from now on I can only watch that channel, plus way more, if I get the bloody digital box. They didn't use that descriptive word, although I used some other colourful ones,  I must say. And Cupcake Wars is on tonight, too. Oh well, looking at the bright side - they have left CBC and Coronation Street untouched.

So that was first thing this morning. Then at work, as I was moving - or trying  to move - a storage shelf filled with extra yarn, the stupid thing fell over and whacked my bad knee, so now I have a hugely swollen purple knee. And my other knee, the good knee, is sporting an ever growing spider bite, which looks like an extra breast, albeit a tiny one. Tiny for a breast, but big for a bite. The swelling is about two inches in diameter, and there's a...well, I don't want to talk about it.

Three day offs now, so I imagine something good will happen during at least one of them. You'll never guess what I'll be doing, but hint wise - it will involve packing and cleaning.

• Breakfast - Toast and Coffee
• Lunch - Veggie Sandwich, Yogurt
• Dinner - Skinless Chicken Breast, New Red Potatoes
• Snacks - Wow, you're going to say, she considers this a snack?? A Sausage and Egg McMuffin, Grapes, small piece of Cheddar Cheese

My Flog for September 6 + Memories and a Cool Car

Strange how memories are popping up no matter what I do. September is always a bit strange for me, as I always remember the first day of school, the very first one, where the teachers re-unite after the summer break. Seeing friends one hasn't seen for two months, and meeting new friends-to-be, always something to look forward to. And seeing all the bright faces waiting in my oh-so-ready classroom, not knowing what the next ten months would bring, but hoping they would be full of wonder and amazement.

And here I am, packing my kitchen cupboards, or at least the contents of them. 'Stuff' is dusty. Howard says not to bother washing it before I pack. I always do as he says. At least when it suits me. And here is my collection of Christmas mugs, which includes my sloping Slanta Claus mug from my next-door-teacher, Rod, to whom I am forever grateful for the use of his lovely little Prelude.

I don't think I was actually supposed to buzz around town in this car, but just to transport it safely to his apartment just a few metres away from the school, while he spent the weekend doing God-knows-What in his hometown. However, after driving it down the hill, I felt compelled to drive it all the way home to Trinity, and from then on, I found it hard to stop. Lovely little car, when one was used to a little Ford Ranger pick-up.

I did write him a poem regarding his car, but unfortunately I seem to have lost it along the way. I must say it was one of my better efforts, even if it was a pack of lies. Maybe I'll come across it again some day.

So I can justify packing this mug, as it travelled many miles across Canada to hold my coffee during the festive season. However, I don't know why I'm packing the cutesy Christmas mugs I picked up for 50 cents each at the Thrift Stores. I really have to be strong and re-thrift these. Less is more.

• Breakfast - Toast w/Jam and Coffee
• Lunch - Subway Veggie Salad
• Dinner - Tossed Salad w/ Thousand Islands Dressing and  2 1/2  BBQed wieners. I don't know why Howard left half a wiener on his plate, but I ate it anyway. He usually eats all of everything on his plate. Come to think of it - maybe I should have checked to make sure he didn't drop it on the ground, or the cat didn't jump up and taste it. 
• Snacks - Iced Mocha, Yogurt w/Fruit on the Bottom, Peach, Diet Pepsi

I think I'm getting back on track. We'll see.

Tamar Loses It + Tamar's Lost It

No flog tonight. I've got one of these ever-empty bottomless pits, and I've been nibbling all day. I think I'm coming down with a cold, there is something weird going on in my body. So we're just going to try and keep it a bit happy, and take it to bed shortly, and hope tomorrow will be better.

We moved a truck load of boxes and bookcases and stuff to Steve's today, so our house is getting emptier and emptier. Howard got loose in the kitchen, and managed to pack things I told him to leave, and leave things I said he could pack. Sigh. No smoothies for me, not that I've had any lately, but that's not the point. If I did want one now, I couldn't. Rats. Now I want one. I have a really low-fat healthy yummy recipe, but I think it's packed. I'll post it here when or if I ever find it again.

My Flog for September 4

Back to work, to boxes and boxes of yarn waiting to be stowed away. I didn't do much of it today though - the store was maggoty with customers. I guess the remaining 9 boxes will have to wait until Tuesday, as Tomorrow is a holiday, and I get to stay home - and get paid, too! Wowzers. I like that. Unfortunately, I'll probably work more at home tomorrow than I would if I were at work. At work, I would be unpacking..... and at home, I will be - yes, you've got it - packing. Oh well.

Howard figures he'll do a couple of Surrey runs tomorrow, bringing some stuff over. It's okay to bring empty bookcases and stuff, but I have to make sure he doesn't take anything we'll need over the next three weeks, like, for instance, the sugar or the toilet paper.

• Breakfast - Toast w/Jam, Coffee. I'm getting tired of tapping this every day. But I'm not tired of eating it every morning.
• Lunch - Veggie Sandwich on fresh Safeway Italian bread. Yum.
• Dinner - Left over Crock pot Stew - still not as good as my oven-made stew, but not bad. Also I made Bisquick biscuits, and they are good. I had two and a half. They were pretty small, so I don't feel guilty. 
• Snacks - Yogurt w/Fruit on the Bottom, Cherries, Diet Pepsi, Iced Mocha

My Flog for September 3 + I Hate Spiders

Today all I wanted to do was eat. I'm not going to bed yet, so any food in the house is in real danger, although I will try my best to leave it alone. I think packing is doing it.

Howard has these horrible bites on his arm, that look pretty scabby and reddish and scary, even though he says they are getting better. I wasn't really worried until I saw one on my leg this morning. Shiver. Seems like we may have a nasty little spider having its way with us while we sleep. And here is Howard now, trying to get me to go to bed. Not likely. We just got home from Neil's, or I would already have the sheets and mattress cover plus even the mattress if it would fit, in the washer on the hottest water available. Shit. 

Tomorrow it's back to work, although I feel like I haven't had a day off yet. There is a little village of boxes growing in the corner of our almost empty living room, which explains why I feel I haven't had a day off yet. So far Value Village isn't as lucky as I thought it would be, but I am doing my best.

• Breakfast - Toast w/Jam and Coffee
• Lunch - 2 huge pancakes w/Becel and syrup
• Dinner - Pork Chop, Roasted Potatoes, Asparagus, Tossed Salad, Bread
• Snacks - Yogurt w/Fruit on the Bottom, Pineapple

My Flog for September 2 + Packing, Packing and More Packing

I actually slept in this morning. Couldn't believe Howard let me sleep in. Unfortunately he still got up early and made the coffee, so when I crawled downstairs a couple or more hours later, it wasn't very fresh any more. I managed to choke it down with my toast and jam though - better than making more.

After breakfast, it was two loads of laundry on the line (after washing them, of course), and then empty boxes to the bedroom for a day of packing my 'stuff.' After removing the dust, of course. This is where I found all the 'stuff' I stowed away over a year ago when Neil and Shannon moved in. I got two boxes of 'stuff' for Value Village and a ton of boxes to follow us over to Surrey. How can I give up all my 'stuff?' Can't.

Three boxes contain all my Stephen King books. If I hadn't given Steve two to read, I would have to use another box. I don't think he's publishing any new ones before we move. 

• Breakfast - Toast and Old Ancient Coffee
• Lunch - A bucket of Green Salad (well, green and red, I guess, having lettuce, cucumber, green onion for green stuff, and red pepper and tomato for the red stuff) with Thousand Islands Dressing. My, there seems to be a lot of stuff in my life today.
• Dinner - Stew and 1 1/2 Rolls
• Snacks - Pineapple, Yogurt w/Fruit on the Bottom, Diet Pepsi

My Flog for September 1 + More Packin' and Less Kickin'

Geez, what a crappy day. Woke up way too early, got up way too early. Howard's been off work all week sick, and I'm pretty sure he's sharing with me, as I feel like I've got the weariest bones and achiest body in the world. I also feel like eating everything in sight, but have kept it down mostly to fruit and jelly beans.

Spent part of the day packing, starting with my 'space,' which includes my Writing Books, my Written Words, and my Knitting Stuff. All in boxes, but not sealed, just stacked quietly in the corner with LEAVE TIL LAST written on the tops and sides. Tomorrow I plan to attack my bedroom, aka my junkroom. Oh well, I am moving light, so Value Village - watch out. Any clothes that are too big are going, so that means I better not regain any weight or I'll be in trouble.

• Breakfast - Toast w/Jam and Coffee. 
• Lunch - a bowl of Pea Soup, left over and defrosted from last week sometime
• Dinner - Chicken Breast, Veggie Salad w/Thousand Islands Dressing, a couple of sauteed red pepper strips
• Snacks - Jelly Beans (zero fat grams! just ignore the calories), Diet Pepsi w/Lime, Grapes, Watermelon, Yogurt w/Fruit on the Bottom
• What I Shouldn't Have Eaten But Did - piece of Chocolate Cream Pie. And to tell the truth, it was yucky. Left an oily feeling in my mouth, and certainly didn't satisfy any wants. Byechh. Now all I have to do is remember this feeling next time I decide to grab the CCP. Howard can have it all to himself.

Specialist appointment yesterday, where he set me straight regarding my knee. No torn ligament, but torn cartilage on both sides. What the heck was I doing? Anyway, he's going to do a little bit of an easy simple surgery (according to him) and I'll be able to walk out of the hospital when it's done. Recuperation could be 2 - 5 weeks. Chances of fixing my knee completely are very high, there's a small chance it won't do anything to help, and there's a slim chance my knee will be worse. But when I asked him if my knee would get worse if I didn't have the surgery, he said yes. So I figured I'd take my chances with the fixing. Surgery probably in November - I said I couldn't have it done in September even though there were a couple of cancellations, as I don't relish the thought of moving house on crutches.

September 1 - A Brand New Number

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