I've got hippie hair

So, we needed shampoo, right, so while at the store last week getting things like Neo citran and cough syrup for the sickly me, instead of our usual brand we saw some organic vegan eco-friendly stuff with goji berries (or some other wierd unidentifiable fruit) in it, and we figured we'd try it out, cuz hey, it was on sale, and I like vegan food, so how can it go wrong?
Now, after a week of this new shampoo, I am disturbed to find that despite my best efforts I am starting to have hippie hair. And no, I don't like it. Don't get me wrong I'm all over the eco friendly non-chemical shampoo shtick, but the deep conditioning fruity whatsits have left my hair rather dull and a sort of stringy and a bit of...well, almost greasy looking...you know...like hippy hair.
I don't like it.
No sir...so this weekend I'm getting my old regular fruity shampoo.
Hopefully noone will have noticed other than me...

attack of the clutter monsters

In an attempt to battle the "dear gods what have I gotten myself intos", this weekend was a lot of work, but very satisfying. Seeing as I know free time will be at a premium over the next semester, I wanted to get my home in order for my sanity's sake. It's been such a busy summer that it was chaos...and I know if I didn't do anything now it wouldn't happen for a long time.

image

So saturday I attacked the basement, which was still in utter disarray from after the "great shitstorm of 2010". It is now organised and tidy, with all the laundry sorted and caught up on. Then there was the main level...it ain't perfect, but now it looks as though people live there and I don't want to go for a walk to escape the clutter. The table top can be seen and the kitchen and living room look rather nice if I do say so.

Sunday was spent going through our bedroom and decluttering, putting away all the backlog of laundry, defurring the house and making up the bed with lovely smelling clean sheets. It's nice coming home to a home that relaxes you instead of making you think of all the things you need to do :)

J took me out for Burmese food to my favourite local place on saturday night and we went for nice long walks outside both evenings. It's been rather special having him all to myself over the holidays and it was nice to spend some relaxing time together. I couild tell I was relaxing as I made some chicken parmesan and cheese onion bread and stuffed peppers for supper last night as well...cooking always relaxes me. In the end I feel quite caught up. I still have a sniffle and the odd cough, but I'm happy to report that I believe I will survive the plague after all :)

The only downside to the last few days is when we went to turn on the air conditioning a few days ago there were some zapping arcing noises and the lights flickered. So, naturally we shut it off straight away and ran to the basement where we noticed a bit of smoke in the basement by the furnace fan, but nothing permanent that we could see. We pulled the cover off the furnace and poked around and other than some dust bunnies (ahem) we couldn't see anything amiss. We're too scared to turn it back on until we've had it looked at so I'm going to hopefully book someone to come look at it soon. Of course this week it is chilly and rainy and we could really do with putting the heat on, but we'll just have to suck it up and put on fuzzy socks and a sweater until we have it looked at, as if it is the furnace fan that's the issue we can't run the heat until it's fixed. I'm hoping it's something minor like a wire or something and not the entire furnace fan...because that could mean essentially a whole new furnace. And yes we've thought of replacing it as it's old and completely energy wasting, but we are hoping on doing it on our terms and budget. But, we shall see. No use getting worked up about it until it's been looked at is there?

For now I'm content to be living in a sane house. I have 1 week of sanity before classes start and I hope to make the most of it...

It's scary when you write it down...

I have just calculated that in order to make up for the time I will be at my 2 classes and a lab this semester I will have to stay an extra 1 1/2 hours at work every day all week to make up the 7 hours...with a get out of jail free card for fridays of only 1 hour. I was already putting in about an extra hour a day for my master's project, which I will still need to continue to do.

Soooo....essentually from september until mid december I will be here for an extra 2 or 3 hours per day, plus a good chunk of saturday.

Whaaaa?

I need a beer...make that 2...

squeak squeak

There have been a lot of forest fires out in B.C. lately and the smoke actually drifted all the way out here on the weekend so my allergies went nutso...almost foggy with all the smoke. Quite bizarre. It made me have quite the squeaky voice and all that. I sounded like a combination of Tom Waits and Micky Mouse. It was rather funny...at first.
Unfortunately for me it's turned into a full out headcold as of monday night and even tho I stayed home yesterday to sleep all day I still feel bleh. So I'm in to do what's needed at work and then I'm off home for more sleep and tea. I can tell I'm tired and overmedicated still because I noticed that I just sent out a memo discussing issues that have been "pooping" up on the image server...yeah, thanks spell check. Oh well...someone will get a bit of a giggle at my expense...I'm too stuffed up and medicated up to mind much at the moment...and seeing as the issues to deal with are rather sh*tty, well it's somewhat appropriate.
Yeah. That's it.
*whistle*

Talk amongst yourselves...
*sniff*

Work is boo

I'm back at work today.

Ask me if I like it?

You guessed it -No.

I do not like it Sam I am.

I'm feeling like a bit of a zombie still with remnants of jetlag, but I'm nearly back to normal. Today should be amusing if nothing else as I have a bunch of meetings today but somehow, over the weekend I have managed to nearly lose my voice. It sounds horrid, but after squeaking like a boy in puberty all through my friend's wedding on saturday(which was lovely by the way-gorgeous sunny day for an outdoor wedding and I looked smashing in my new red frock) I've pretty much faded off into a squeaky whisper. It doesn't hurt and I don't have much of a cold...just tired and squeaky. Very weird...it sounds horrid though. I think I'll milk it for all it's worth :)

So...I'm off to hang with the zombies for the day. If I make it home alive and brain intact, I'll dive into those photos and pick a few good ones for ya.

Have a great day everyone :)

Oh pussy cat pussy cat where have you been?

I'm home, cat in lap, coffee in hand, wistfully recalling what it was like to not have any fur on my clothing while wandering with my love through new sights and sounds with no work and delicious food. Once I download our nearly 1000 photos, I'll take some time to blurb a bit about our 10 day 10th anniversary holiday. Catching up with grapecat was truly wonderful... Truly.

Strangely enough, having just flown home late last night from our glorious holiday over the ocean, visiting the wonderful grapecat in her roundel, as well as Paris, Canterbury, Dover and London, I have been struck with the utter paranoia of the United States of America, adding a bit of a sour note to the end of an otherwise deliriously wonderful trip. Not really considering it, we booked our flights with Delta (bleh) which flew direct from home through Minneapolis international airport on the way to and back from the Heathrow airport in the UK. Even though we were in the US only long enough to buy a bit of coffee or a pint and munchables on our way through and back, we had to disembark, get scanned, get our luggage, go through customs (where they can open our luggage and look through it for "our safety" even though we are not actually staying there), get scanned again, put our luggage on for the connecting flight (where they can randomly rifle through your luggage again for whatever reason they feel like)...before we could possibly get scanned *again* and then wander around an airport a bit and reboard to get on with our trip. On our way back I took of my boots 3 times. 3 bloody times.
Thankfully we dressed up a bit for our flights and were our most politely unoffensive white little selves and were relatively unaccosted. Anyone who appeared shaggy or mistrusting, or sadly, of middle eastern descent, seemed to get their fingerprints or retinas scanned or have a full body inspection experience...I wouldn't want to have to get into those new full body scanners....I can't be convinced they're safe.
Heathrow airport where they have actually *had* bombings...*they*were not this paranoid, and just did what was needed without feeling so terribly opressive. Paris? Ditto. Canada? Downright polite and helpful, I must smugly report.
Perhaps I was just tired and tetchy as it was about 3 AM UK time when we passed thru customs towards a few hour wait before we could fly on home, but I must say....the US has a wee bit too much paranoia on it's hands. Like it's feeding on itself...I don't think I'll travel through the US again if I can help it. Just a bit too creepy.

Oh Canada, you make me love you more and more whenever I go away :)

...talk amongst yourselves :)

Fringing

We went to see Die Roten Punkte at the Fringe Festival last night - they outdid themselves this year. They're a mock 80's german rock band comedy with music...really entertaining. If you get the chance, head out to your local fringe festival...you get to see fantastic (albeit sometimes utterly bizarre) theatre for very little, and support a lot of upcoming artists. It's my favourite festival in Saskatoon...they shut down the streets here and there are 4 venues with plays all day and street performers, yummy food and great theatre. I've seen a few shows and hope to get to a few more over the next few days.

It's been busy here doing a lot of MSc work, but we were able to get away and visit my Dad for a few days on the long weekend and do a bit of fishing and relaxing. It was good to see him and he appreciated the visit...he's doing much better, and I'm glad to know he's OK.

Nose to the grindstone, yes sir. Just thought I'd stop in to let you all know I'm doing great.
Hope you all are too :)