Gone fishin’ June 25, 2008

Ok. Not really. But I am going to eat these:

And going to walk along here (staying right beside it too!):

And quite possibly have a few of these:

See you in a week!

NaComLeavMo June 23, 2008

Basically I failed NaComLeavMo in terms of its goal. I knew when I started it that it was not the ideal time for me to be doing it. As soon as it started I was going to be without internet for several days. And then I was playing catch up. And then, well, life happened as it so often does.

But it made me stop and think about commenting and about when I do comment and where I comment and why I comment. And after that, and missing some important posts on some of the blogs I read most frequently but that got buried in my huge lists of feeds, I did some reorganization and now those posts won’t go missed again. I’m trying to be a more active commenter in general, but especially on those blogs, especially within my own community.

NaComLeavMo contained mostly blogs that I did not know - blogs that I don’t consider part of my online community. Yes, there were blogs from across the gauntlet of topics that bloggers cover but not many that I follow. It was great to read and see different communities, even if it was sometimes heartbreaking reading some of the stories on the infertility blogs.

I read a lot more posts than I commented on. Why? Because, especially in terms of some of the infertility blogs, I felt like an outsider. Some of the posts on blogs are deeply personal and it just felt wrong to me to do a drive-by comment. I felt like I was being intrusive. But I read and I explored and went to many blogs I probably would not have found my way to if not for NaComLeavMo.

Thank you to everyone who commented here. And my apologies if I did not return the favour.

A very important question June 17, 2008

Does every pair of shoes you buy give you blisters? Or am I just some unlucky person in the foot department?

Because right now? I’m sporting some dandy new blisters! Oh well, it could be worse. I could be bleeding.

Relocation June 15, 2008

I’ve relocated a number of times. First to Montreal for university, a city that I ended up staying in for several years after graduation. Then to Toronto to seek new opportunities. Then back to Montreal because as many perks as it sometimes has, Toronto was simply not my city. And now to Ottawa, for both professional and personal reasons.

Each of those time that I picked up and moved my life to a new place were different. University was easy. It was the natural thing to do at the time and thanks to living in a dorm it was almost as though there were “instant friends” and an instant new life. Things were different for sure but they were for everyone around me as well so it was everyone’s normal. Toronto was different. Harder. I got there and was jobless. I knew a few people and thankfully ended up extending my social network a bit (a huge thing since I ended up working from home). But many of those people had also left the city so leaving felt right. Moving back to Montreal was almost being in limbo. I knew that I had wanted to leave Toronto but didn’t know really where I wanted to be. Montreal felt right but as much as it had things and people that I love it also wasn’t the right spot for me.

And now I find myself in Ottawa, a place that I’ve moved to mostly for personal reasons (but also some professional ones peppered in there as well). Every other time I’ve relocated it’s been just me (and the fake cat for the last several). But this time it’s different because I’ve moved with someone. Someone who, despite having lived other places temporarily such as when we were in Montreal together, has never permanently relocated. While everything here is new to me for him it is stepping back to his normal life. The apartment in Ottawa is comfortable and mine and ours but it feels like everything outside these walls is “his”.

I didn’t even realize that I felt that way until the other day when he made a comment about how something was “the way we’ve always done it.” It bugged me a lot at the time but it took a few hours to figure out why and when I did I unraveled a bit.

Quite simply nothing here, outside the apartment walls, is the same as I’ve always done it. Nor do I expect it to be after only a couple of weeks of living here. But it never really sunk in until that moment that the two of us are having two very different experiences living here. For him it’s a homecoming of sorts. For me it’s uncharted territory.

Sure there were signs of this but it never quite clicked. There was the time where I, extremely frustrated with never seeming to get my bearings, asked him for heck’s sake please take the same damn route coming and going for once. While taking different routes is a great way to see the city it does help when one is familiar with at least one route first.  He did it because at the time each of those routes made the best sense to him in the situation.  My outburst of frustration led to a discussion about why I was frustrated and he’s now much better at trying to take the same route (as well as explaining to me what route we’re taking) and I try to pay more attention to where we’re going since I know that we’ll be taking the same route back.

I need to make more of an effort to get out there an establish myself in my new city. There are people I can call and meet up for coffee. I’m not friendless here. I’m simply used to being a homebody. And L? He doesn’t quite realize exactly how social he is. But as someone who knows so little of the city and so few people in it and after months of both of us staying in so much (he knew only a person or two in Montreal) it feels very social to me.

When it comes down to it, at this moment, it’s his city. He’s lived here for most of his life. He has a great base of friends here and they have been very welcoming but when it comes down to it they are his friends.

Sooner or later it will become my city as well but it’s a much slower process for a transplant. A friend’s mother , who relocated not only to a new city but a new country as well, once told me that she believes it takes about three years to truly make a new place your own. By my estimation she’s pretty on the money.

I’ve moved here. I’ll make it my city. I’ll put in roots. But like any transplant it’s hard at first, digging into new soil, exploring the new ground. Especially when you have someone thriving beside you whose roots run deep. It can be overwhelming. I just have to remind myself not to be overshadowed by the deeper roots and to be thankful for them for showing me some of the best paths (I’ll discover the others on my own). And to be thankful for them for attempting to be understanding of a situation they’ve never been in.

Dear Linens ‘n Things Canada June 10, 2008

Dear Linens ‘n Things Canada,

It pains me to say it but you kinda suck. Oh, your brick and mortar stores are great. We’ve received great service at them. But your online store and its associated customer service? It blows goats.

We’ve given your online store a shot. We’ve ordered from you twice in the past month. And both times we ran into the same problem - you won’t ship us what we ordered. Yes, we did get part of our shipment but you wouldn’t ship us our sheets even though your website said that they were available.

Your website allowed us to order them but then a few days later we got the message that while they are available they are not available to us because we live near the wrong warehouse. Yes, that’s right. The sheets we want (two separate and totally different sets) are sitting in a warehouse somewhere and we want to buy them but you won’t ship them to us because that’s not the right warehouse for our area.

I get that costs for shipping are going up. But I also know that you, unlike many online companies these days, are indeed charging me for shipping. I have the bill. It’s right there under “shipping”. So please explain it to me - I want to buy the sheets and I’ve said that I’ll pay for the shipping so why will you not ship me the sheets that your website let me order?

Here’s a thought - if you aren’t going to allow me to buy the darned things how you let us know that up front on the website? It’s not that hard. All you have to do is add a widget where I can put in my postal code to see if this order is in stock at the warehouse that actually ships to me. Or an even more radical idea - you could actually ship the sheets to me since I’m already paying shipping. It’s sheets - not a full set of bedroom furniture.

If you must take an item off my order it would be nice if you adjusted the shipping costs and taxes of said order without us having to call you. Because charging us those costs on something we can’t get? Not cool (also possibly a wee bit illegal).

So while you may taunt me with your reasonably price high thread count sheet sets (with two extra pillowcases) I will not fall victim to your wily ways and crappy service again. Linens ‘n Things Canada online - you are officially persona non grata’d at Chez Sassymonkey.

Signed your unsatisfied customer,

Sassymonkey

Missing: One Saturday Morning Routine June 7, 2008

One of the more minor annoyances of moving is that it seriously upsets the Saturday morning routine of being really damned lazy. While we had done a great job of unpacking we picked up a bunch of Lee’s stuff yesterday. Basically he spent the whole day moving - it was just a half day for me. Leave it to us to do it on a day that had super humidity (how can the Weather Network report that there’s 94% humidity and yet it’s not raining. Shouldn’t we have dew forming on our bodies at that high of humidity?). So we finished around 10 or 10:30 last night. We deserve a lazy Saturday morning right? WRONG.

This is what our Saturday mornings are supposed to look like.

• Wake up
• Feed the cat
• Make coffee
• Get newspaper
• Have OJ and bowl of berries
• Have coffee while either watching home improvement shows on A&E, TLC & HGTV or while reading the newspaper in the sunroom or if too cold in the sunroom read the paper while watching home improvement shows
• Finish paper. Give up on finishing the crosswords. Continue watching home improvement shows
• Make Saturday brunch - usually consisting of bacon or sausages and pancakes (possibly blueberry)
• Eventually feel like you’ve lazy around long enough and go shower and get on with your day (this point may take hours and hours to reach)

We more or less managed this last week. But due to the fact that we moved a bunch of stuff in yesterday it feels more like we just moved in than it did last week. There was no lazy Saturday today. This is what our day looked like.

• Wake up and actually get up at 7:55.
• Feed the cat
• Put on coffee
• Get dressed
• Load old mattress and 3 bags of garbage into rental van (which already contains 2 box springs, a falling apart dresser, a falling apart nightstand, a broken bedframe (no, not my pretty bed, Lee’s crappy old bed) and a falling apart bookcase - see a theme here?)
• Pour coffee into travel mugs (this is never a good sign…)
• Get in truck
• Drive to dump (note: normally we’d donate/freecycle old furniture but this stuff was broken and useless)
• Dump things
• Drive to Lee’s parent’s place to drop off the box springs (which were not broken, we just don’t need them and don’t have storage space for them) and have coffee
• Drop off rental van
• Pick up our vehicle
• It’s now 11am. Time for breakfast. Hit Denny’s for breakfast rationalizing it by deciding the line up at Cora’s would be long and annoying. (Dump and Denny’s - we’re so classy.)
• Breakfast finished it’s now time for something fun. That is a booksale. Yay booksale. Buy $30 worth of books. My books? Fiction (du Maurier, a Heyer, random stuff and Viragos (I found 5!!!!) and Pierre Burton books. His books? Sci-Fi and political memoirs.

Ok, the booksale was fun. And we would have gone even if we had been able to have a proper lazy Saturday. But I look forward to my lazy Saturday mornings. If you find mine can you return it to me?

Random Friday Five June 6, 2008

Because I’m not sure how it got to be Friday already…

• We’re picking up our new to us dining room set tonight. We has originally planned on buying brand new furniture but then I was playing around online and found usedottawa.com. We found a great deal on there. The seller held on to the set for us even though we couldn’t take it right away. Soon I’ll have a place to sit and eat. Yay!
• I’ve officially started job searching and of course, the availability of jobs has dipped versus when I first quit my job. Murphy’s Law at work I suppose. Plus it’s getting in to summer and people don’t hire as much in the summer. I’m not too worried because I do have a few options. Also, with my vacation in a few weeks I probably couldn’t start immediately anyway.
• Speaking of vacation…I’ve realized I don’t really have clothes for it. You see, since I’ve worked from home and spend most of my time at home right now and have gained about 10lbs most of my clothes don’t really fit. I filled up a bag of clothes to donate yesterday. Sadly most of my summer clothes went in there and with the upcoming vacation and summer heat I need clothes. Which means shopping. Boo! Hiss!
• I also need a hair cut. I haven’t had my hair professionally cut in over a year. The last time I did I pretending I didn’t hate it for two days and then ended up calling my two best friends and crying.
• I made my first trip to the Ottawa Public Library yet. I don’t have my own card yet (no proof of address…) but I was able to use the boy’s card. Fiction, romance, YA, cookbooks. I had fun at the library. I can’t tell you how so bloody thrilled I am to have a good library system at my disposal.

Merely a suggestion June 3, 2008

But if your preschool-aged child is covering their ears, hiding their eyes, and crawling into your lap during the commercials (that’s right, commercials not previews) perhaps Indiana Jones IS NOT APPROPRIATE VIEWING FOR YOUR CHILD.

(The kid did much better during the movie than I thought he would but good grief the poor thing will have nightmares for a month.)

I’m feeling…domestic June 3, 2008

Ok, so I was thrilled that I got the Cuisinart Griddler for my birthday (among other things). I know women aren’t supposed to get excited about kitchen appliances as gifts but screw that. I’m in love with my Griddler. It’s been given a couple of test runs and I think I want to marry it.

First run was bacon and blueberry pancakes for Saturday morning breakfast using the open griddle option. Pancakes turned out light and fluffy and perfect. The bacon was crispy and thanks to the the little drainage cups saving the bacon fat for future use was a snap. (Please don’t tell me you throw out your bacon fat. Your grammy would not be pleased.)

Last night the closed grill function was taken for a test run with some porkchops. (Side note: bought the chops at Costco and oh my goodness so much better and thicker than grocery story chops. And tastier). Put a dry rub on them and then when almost done brushed them with a bit of hickory bbq sauce. They were tender and juicy and they were just damn good.

I haven’t used the panini press (not much of a panini type of person) but I’m sure it’s fantastic too. And since the plates are removable clean up is easy (apparently, I don’t do the dishes around here but the one who does says that cleaning them is easy and gives it two thumbs up). And that makes me happy because I hated my George Foreman and it was a happy day when I donated it to charity.

I’ve also gotten an itch to grow things. Like herbs. And tomatoes. This is sure to end poorly as I’m the person that can’t keep a cactus alive for more than a month or two. But yet I find myself in possession of lavender, coriander, rosemary, basil, parsley and 3 tomato plants. You should start better on which will die first and which will be the last plant standing.

I think I’ve been without a job too long. This level of domesticity doesn’t suit me.  Maybe I should read more books.

101 Things Update June 2, 2008

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a 101 things update. Nothing very exciting this time, ie no Paris trips or anything. (But I’m reading two or three bloggers who are currrently on vacation in or going to Paris and the newspaper had a thing about Paris yesterday and I WANT TO GO BACK. sigh.)

5. Read all the books I have checked out of the library x4 2 - I took a bunch of books out of the Montreal library in April and I read them all. I did not fair so well in May. Will be hitting up the Ottawa library soon.

25. Take things to Goodwill x6 2 (Note: or other similar donation place) - Dropped a bunch of stuff off at the Sally Ann in May and will likely be doing another trip this month. Moving has a way of doing that…

29. Organize the kitchen cupboards x3 1 - moving does cause one to do that and I’ve moved twice now (note that moving was not on the original 101 things list…sigh). And the kitchen cupboards will likely be reorganized within another week when we pick up our new dining room set, including a hutch!

32. Clean out the bathroom cabinet x4 1 - Again moving does tend to make one do that.

46. Clean my desk x6 1 - again with the moving

55. Buy renter’s insurance - done!

63. Eat breakfast every day for a week x5 - I’ve probably had this one complete for a few months now. I now eat breakfast everyday…except maybe on moving days.

I really need to start focusing on getting some of this stuff done. I really thought that I’d be done with at least one of the reading challenges by now…