More Tales of Woe

The car

My poor car is still wonky. The dash warning lights haven't been flashing this week but it starting making a lovely clunking noise yesterday. //sigh// It sort of sounds like the tranny is slipping, only going up hill so far. I guess I'll be taking it in on Tuesday when I get some cash. //sigh again//

Blockquotes

As you can see I've discovered the blockquotes feature. No woe here, just a mildly interesting development.

Baking

This week is my turn at the bake station. Nothing wrong with that, I like baking and have learned lots, except that I have to get up an hour before my usual 0' dark 30. I am pooped with a capital P.

Dog Chewies

Selena, for reasons known only to her, decided to take my collected Poe (cheap leather bound Smithbooks version, but nonetheless leather bound!) and leave it lying around her room. One of the dogs chewed it. //sigh// I guess it didn't taste good since there is only minor damage to the binding.

My Uniform

After keeping it clean all week I end up with God Knows What all over the sleeve and I have to wash it tonight. Tomorrow is uniform exchange, but that is after class and I need to arrive clean.

Well, if those are the worst things wrong around here life really isn't that bad and I shouldn't really be bitching. Heck, we could be having mudslides and/or tsunamis or other horrible things.

Of snow and rain and my crappy car.

Of Snow

It snowed another 4 inches on Sunday! Just when I thought I'd bea able to get my car back up the drive. //sigh//

Of Rain

Then it started to rain and hasn't really stopped since. Driving down hill and around the corner in the slush was an adrenaline filled experience. Yikes! Of course, just to make it more fun one of our neighbours with a really long snowy drive decided it would be great to park their car right on the corner. If anyone spun out their car would have been toast! Today we can finally get back up the drive. Yeah!

Of My Crappy Car

Or maybe my poor car. Whatever it is, it is slowly falling apart. //argh// I went into town yesterday after school to pick up a few things. The leaking rad overheated the engine, the wipers did their stop and start thing, and the abs light kept flashing. According to the book the flashing light means the car needs servicing, not that I don't have any brakes. Either way it sucks! So far today none of the above happened.

Update On School

With all the snow and missed days we've been juggling a bit with the work. My first station was to be veg & starch but the snow scratched that, so it will now be my last station. Last week I was garde manger (appies) again. I love doing that! Even though it took me almost all week (3 of the 4 days) to get the huge new menu prepped I enjoyed it. This week is the dishpit. //blecch// Next week back to bakery and arriving an hour early.

Talk About a Backfire

This weekend we went to town for a few things. Ryan asked me to buy him some "old man" slippers since he doesn't have any that fit. So Selena, Niko and I go to Superstore in search of slippers. We found the "old man" slippers in Ry's size, then Selena decides she needs some too. She chooses Elmo from Sesame Street. Both pairs had $10 tags. Then we see these bunny slippers that look almost real. They are marked down to $3 so I decide to buy Ry a pair as a joke and pretend we couldn't find the other kind. For $3 I can give them to the dogs for toys later. ('Lene's turned out to be $3 too, that was a nice bonus)
When we get home, I manage to keep a straight face as I hand him the slippers. He says "Cool. Thanks." Niko and I look at each other. //sigh// Selena gives him the "old man" slippers and explains the joke. Ry sort of smiles, says "oh", then "thanks" again and goes back to Baldur's Gate. My son, the king of underreaction.

Bureaucracy Drives Me Nuts!

Arrgghh!! I hate it when one area of a department does not talk to another area of the department. On December 31 I filed my EI claim report, apparently I did it wrong, as the following Tuesday no money was deposited. Okay, fine. Try to find out what happened. Maybe payments are late due to the New Year's holiday. Wait until Thursday, still no $$. Phone the help line - all automated - all it says is "your report has been sent back to our office, if we need further information we'll call you."

Of course, no human beans available when I call. Call back Friday. I filled out the report wrong, got confused with the school holiday, etc. Guy says, no problem, it's fixed you'll get a payment Tuesday. An hour ago, a different EI guy phones to tell me I filled out my report wrong and did I confuse the school holiday? I say "yes", he says he may not get the report in on time for me to get a payment tomorrow. But for sure it will be in on Wednesday. Arrggh!!

Good thing I only need the money for food & gas, not something really important. //sigh// We could f-ing starve to death waiting for those people to sort out which box I ticked wrong. Oh well, what's another few bucks on my poor Visa?

Another Snow Day

Not any actual snow, thank the Powers That Be, just another day of no school. 'Lene is thrilled 'cause she can play outside and warm up in front of the TV with hot cocoa. Me, I'm not so thrilled, I'd rather be at school cooking things. However, I'm taking the opportunity to get caught up on laundry and dishes and all those other mundane things that require electricity. Then I guess I can cook things here once all my pots are clean. Soup, maybe . . .

Mum was so worried the power would go again that she made dinner at 2 in the afternoon. //shake head// The power stayed on and the sun is out, so all is well, except for the sheet of ice called Moss Rd. I would have tried to go out this morning anyway except that the road is on about a 30 degree angle (sorry, I don't have a compass handy) and has a 90 degree turn at the end. Fun on ice. Eek! Then the so-called main road has lovely 45 degree hill that curves, one side drops down about 50 feet to the RR tracks and the other is a nice cliff. It was bad enough we came upon the snow plow coming down the hill yesterday as we were coming up, at a spot where the road is barely wide enough for 2 cars. Yes, it was a bit of an adreneline kick. //phew//

We decided we'd had enough fun for one day and left my car at the bottom of the driveway and walked up with our groceries. Hmm, maybe time to buy a toboggan?

Here's the side of the mountain, viewed from the edge of our property near the dog run.


My car at the end of the drive


The rest of the driveway around to Mum's goes were the foot prints are

Snow, snow, and more snow!

It starting snowing Thursday night and didn't stop until sometime yesterday. Originally we were supposed to get 10cm, well, we had that by Friday morning and it was still coming. School was cancelled for Selena and me. I was most disappointed since the other group was doing a trial run for Friday breakfast service and we were all going to get to eat it. Also we were going to make scallop mousseline to stuff into the killer salmon. Bummer.

Then it got worse (see below) when the electricity went out. On the up side, it looks very pretty here on the side of the hill, Selena had fun sledding and the dogs loved it. On the down side, I don't like seeing my breath inside the house, our driveway is a bitch to shovel, Ryan stayed down in Victoria at his Dad's, and the power went out right in the middle of a long blog post. //sigh//

Overall I think we got about 14-16 inches, not sure what that is in cms.

Niko's Darwin is black, Cuinn has spots and Skyla is brindle.

Who Turned Out the Lights?

Due to a recent dump of snow (see next post) our electricity was out this weekend for rather a long time. It went out at 1130 Friday, thought about coming back on a few times but wasn't fully engaged again until 1400 Saturday. The timing was right though, as Niko and I were dying from lack o' caffiene and had just finished attempting to shovel the driveway.

We had a nice couple a cuppas and some crackers with Mum and Gramma when the power went out again. This time it was out from about 1430 to 1630, and luckily we managed to eat a nice hot dinner complete with hot cocoa and the rooms were nice & toasty warm before it went out yet again at 1900 ish.

Both evenings we lit a lot of candles and Selena & I sat around playing "Go Fish" until we couldn't see the cards anymore. Then we went to bed. To keep warm we loaded my bed with blankets and shared, we also had 2 of the 3 cats and one dog keeping us warm. During the day Selena played outside quite a bit and I huddled on the couch with a book (A Michael Jecks medieval mystery The Tolls of Death). The dogs curled on the couch and we covered them with a blanket, unlike Darwin they didn't move and they both have more hair than Mr D, so were a bit warmer anyway.

Funny I never really realized just how dependent we are on electricity. Everything I thought to do needed some form of electrical implement. Especially cooking! I almost dug out the BBQ and would have if we'd gone much longer, I am really sick of tuna sandwiches. The juice finally came back on at about 0430 and hopefully is on to stay.

Ouch #3 and #4

I think, I'm starting to lose track.

#3 Day one back at school after the holidays and we have tons of prep work before we can cook. Sarah & I peel a whole whack of carrots and then start on potatoes. A half peeled tater is a slippery thing and I skinned the knuckle of my thumb with the peeler. Ouch!

#4 Yesterday Sarah and I were prepping salmon and I'd sliced off one filet, went to flip the fish over and cut my finger on a bone. A fish bone. How embarrassing. And ouch! It stings like a paper cut. I didn't feel quite so bad after Dave told me that cuts from fish bones are quite common when you are prepping a lot of fish.

DIY Goddess?

I think not, seeing as it took me all afternoon to change the taps in my kitchen. First the old ones (that leak and spray water everywhere) seemed to be stuck on, then the new ones didn't fit the old holes (too big, of course), then the old whosits tubes that the water runs through were the wrong length (too short, of course). And try to find a screwdriver bit the right size!

Then again, I did change the taps. Me. By myself. I am woman, hear me swear! //snort// I don't need no stinking man! At least not for plumbing anyway, the opening of jars is a whole different story ;-) . . .

Happy New Year!

Wow, I can't believe how fast 2004 went! I also can't believe I'm still awake!

Not for long though. Tomorrow Rowena is coming up, we are hauling my bigger TV up to Niko's more comfy living room and we are having a LoTR-fest. We plan to watch all 3 extended editions of Lord of the Rings, about 12 hours worth. Yes, we are geeks.

We have a whole menu planned so we don't starve. Rowena is making curried chicken and bringing the fixings for salad rolls, I'm making soup (hmmm, wonder why?), and Niko is providing the tea, coffe, chips & dip and anything else we forgot.

I can't think of a better way to ring in the New Year. We haven't done anything like this since we watched a day long Red Dwarf marathon on KCTS, and that was about 10 years ago and only about 8 hours. Did I mention we are geeks?

As far as resolutions go, I haven't made any for the last few years since I suck at keeping them. This year I've decided to make it really easy:

• try to be more domestically organized


• try to pay more attention to the food I eat, less junk & more veg


• try to get a little exercise every day

Ooops, I'll have to amend those since I got it wrong. "Do or do not, there is no try." (Master Yoda). I think I mentioned I'm a geek?

• be more domestically organized


• pay more attention to the food I eat, less junk & more veg


• get a little exercise every day

There, that's better. Now it's off to bed with me or I won't be awake when Rowena gets here tomorrow (no, that's later today //ack//).