justanauntie73

11:46 pm

Since my last post... We have finished drywalling, sanding and put one coat of primer on the wall. PJ has dug a bigger hole to level the shower so the pan will sit in it nicely. A new light has been installed in the shower area, and we decided that just tiling instead of putting a stall in would work better. PJ's dad showed up on Wednesday, and has been here helping out. I'm not sure when he's going home, but since they started tiling (YAY!!!) today, I think it will be soon. The end is in sight!!!

I have colours picked out for the bathroom a mix of Blue Fox, Cinnamon Cake and Calm Air from the Behr line. I can hardly wait to start painting, because it means that it's just a matter of time before we can start working in the upstairs bathroom. It' just like a wonderful wonderful dream. Now that I'm writing this, I hope that Jimmy Danger doesn't leave before we have the flooring figured out. It actually coming together, after 2 long years! Wheee! I'm so excited and proud of PJ, because it just looks so darned great in there, and he did most of the work!

Speaking of work, the assistant manager in charge of my area has left the company, so I have a different manager looking after my hours. I have 2 weekends in a row off (for sure!), with a possible third one coming! I have to work some 6-10 shifts, but I will suffer through that just to get my weekends. Hours are still in short supply, which really sucks when you are trying to make more that 28 a week, but I keep hearing that that will pick up... If they want to keep some of the people around, management might have to do a little bit of backtracking on their "let's cut hours and give everyone crappy shifts" policy. They have just had a survey of morale in the store, and not the best timing. There are a lot of very angry and frustrated people working there, and it's getting to the point where they may walk out the door and not come back. Not too great for a place that needs people to stay open. Oh well, they'll figure it out eventually.

I've discovered that making lemonade is a lot harder than originally anticipated. Well, for the first batch anyway. Last night I went out to pick up some citric acid at 3 different stores. I didn't think to look in the pharmacy section of Wal-Mart, so I just went to Safeway. (It was after 9:00 anyway, so the pharmacy was closed.) At Safeway, I found out that the citric acid was locked in the pharmacy, and that I could try Shoppers Drug Mart. I went there, but they didn't have any, so I just went home. I didn't get out to get any today, but by tomorrow, I will have the citric acid to make lemonade. The moral of the story: life may hand you lemons, but before you can make lemonade, you need a spoon, a large bowl, sugar, hot water, and citric acid (which can be harder to find than you'd think!).

Current Mood: pleased

01:17 pm

We are nearly at the end of our holidays. Well, I've been to work for the last week (sort of, but with shorter hours, I've been home more than at work) and PJ has been reaping holiday goodness. Well, actually he has been trapped with our friend K in the basement working on the bathroom. By this time next month, we should have a completely working bathroom, and have company to use it!

One of the more frustrating things about the whole bathroom thing is, like everything else, there is never the right stuff at the home improvement stores. We have been looking every day for 2 weeks now for a shower that "should be here any day", and can't be ordered because "we always have it in stock". PJ and his dad went yesterday and actually priced out tiles for the basement shower, and while that adds another 2 weeks to our project time, we can actually see an end in sight... we think. With the shower, you never know when that would happen.

Hmm, in the downtime, it might be time to go and look at paint swatches for the bathroom... It won't be like we haven't been haunting the home improvement places anyway!

09:54 pm

Just had a great day. I was working at Wallyworld yesterday, and saw a couple go past me with a young boy. Didn't think much of it, as there are lots of people who go shopping with kids there. Then, I heard the words, "Maybe if I ask the girl...", followed by "It's Kathleen!"

Turns out that Nettie and her family are holidaying in Brandon for the week, Well her and T are, Big B is out working at Minnedosa, but they get to spend mornings together.

So, I went out for a frappuccino, and then a quick trip to Winners, Wal-Mart, and the Dollarama, picked up PJ, a quick swim, supper at Montana's, the movie "Flushed Away", and then back home. A good time was had by all, and we had a great visit. Good times.

Post is quick, I'm pooped, so off to bed!

Current Mood: satisfied

11:16 pm

Another day of rain and cloud. Fortunately it has been warm, so while depressing looking, but we can wear shorts and not freeze our legs off.

PJ got to go to the dentist today, and found out that his mouth is fine, and that he doesn't have to go back for another 6 months. Lucky bastard! I picked him up at quarter after 12 today, and dropped him off at 10 to 2. Apparently I'm not the only one who gets to wait to be looked at. He seems to think that I have dental nazis, because whenever he goes in, he never has a problem. I go in, and I have to come back in 3 months, or for a deep cleaning (!!!) and he goes in, and he doesn't have to set up a return appointment. I don't know how he did it, but we were doing the same stuff... maybe he paid off the dental hygienist. I will have to find out his tricks. Lucky!

Current Mood: jealous

11:04 pm

Tomorrow is probably the last Suunday I will be teaching SS for the 2006/2007 year. The next week is our SS picnic and general fun day, so lessons tend to slide off the radar. I also have to work at 12 both days, so really, the earlier I can sluff off, the better. It's hard to believe that the summer is almost here. Especially looking outside, or spending more than 10 minutes not doing anything more strenuous than a very light walk... I can't wait for the double digit numbers again. At least we didn't get snow, I don't think that would be very fun.

I have learned to use a till at work, and that makes me both more and less useful. More, because I can be put in more places around the store. Less because I wasn't taught how to close or open the till, just to cover breaks in the middle of the shift. I am also in 1,2,3 or up to 4 different departments during a shift, and depending on where I'm covering I can be on 2 different sides of the store. Of course, at the end of the shift, my area looks like crap, but at least everyone got a break and most of the customers have been served. I hate the learning curve of "you can figure it out on your own!" At least I'm on the downward slope. If only I could get the hours that I want, and not have to work every weekend. Sigh! Oh well, I am saving money!

Current Mood: sleepy

12:03 am

So we spent a day in Winnipeg visiting the sisters, brothers in law, and nephews. PJ took some video of "quiet playing with auntie" and posted it.

http://www.patrickjohanneson.com/m-n-k.html

The last clip ends just before M finds Buzz, thanks to the goodness of the camera cutting it off.

I didn't realize that I sounded so much like macmamma. No wonder M calls her Mommy, and me Mimi.

Current Mood: content

11:21 am

Does anyone have a good cure for the hiccups?

We are now almost 2 weeks after PJ's dental surgery, and he still has the hiccups. He is off the anti-psychotic drugs, but the new ones (which are also used to treat MS) are not totally doing the trick either...

At least he doesn't hiccup when he's asleep. Yet. The hiccups seem to be slowing down, though. He has only had them really bad twice yesterday, and he had a couple of 20 minute periods where he wasn't hiccuping at all. Now he has to just figure out a way to extend that, and he'll be good.

06:51 pm

Four days later, and PJ is still doing great. I'm so happy and relieved for him. Now if he could get rid of the hiccups that he's had for the last four days, we'd really be laughing. He even drove by evil Montana's tonight and thought "Mmmm, that smells really good!" I didn't get close to feeling that way for 2 weeks. Fortunately he has me to be a voice of reason(?) and tell him that eating steak might not be his best option. Not that something difficult to eat doesn't sound enticing...

Current Mood: getting hungry

10:59 pm

Hmm...

We are in the middle of a provincial election here, and the usual campaigning is going on. We have only seen a few attack ads, but the general consensus is that if you aren't going to come up with a solution to the problem, why talk about it.

I have had calls from the 3 major parties wondering if they can count on my vote. Of the Conservative party, it was a flat out no. Their candidate is Rick Borotsik, who I didn't dislike much, right up to the last election when the NDP were elected and he was calling the voters who didn't vote Conservative idiots on national tv. So that is why I'm not voting conservative- that and I don't like the party. But that's another story.

By the way, the slogan for our local NDP candidate is "Forward not Back", and we both immediately thought of Kang and Kodos on the Simpsons "The politics of failure have failed. It is time to make them work again! We must go forward not back, upward not down, and always whirling, whirling whirling toward freedom!!"

Hee hee, I love election time! Does that make me a nerd?

Current Mood: amused

02:36 pm - Clean teeth here we come!

Today's the day! PJ had his wisdom teeth out this afternoon. I left him at 11:30, and came back at 1 for him. I waited a half an hour, but apparently he was done by 12:30. Lucky! This includes him being knocked out, his teeth removed and recovery time. I wish it had been that easy for me. Maybe if I had been out, they would have just reefed on my mouth and I would have been out sooner. Oh well, PJ is alert, and not that sore...yet.

I also had a dental appointment, and had my teeth cleaned. It sounds like things are better, but I still have to go back for a periodontal cleaning in 4 months. From the sounds of it, even though I am flossing every chance I get, I still am having a time with bleeding and not getting everything out that I should. Damn! I wanted to be one of those ones who only has to come in once every 6 months! Maybe with this next cleaning... Mind you, it was the hygienist that was concerned about my mouth. The dentist came in and basically said "well, it will take some more time for your teeth to heal from your wisdom teeth coming out, and have a good summer". I'm starting to think that he has hired his hygienists to play the heavies... they are the ones who are on my case to do better, and I just get the breezy "hi" from him. Maybe it's not dentists who people should be afraid of...?

Current Mood: contemplative

11:08 pm

Is it May already?

We appear to be in the middle of allergy season here. I don't remember ever having symptoms bad enough to matter, but last year and this year I have had a terrible time. Thank goodness for Sinutab and that kind of stuff. It is having an effect on my brain... I slept for about 12 hours straight last night/this morning, and my brain still feels like it was made from cottage cheese. Boo!

The rain has finally come, and as I look outside, I think it's time to start preparing the beds for flowers for the summer. Right now they are covered in weeds and while they look very green, I think that they might look a little more cared for if I took them out.

I got my evaluation form from work... I hate doing self evals. I never know what to put. I guess I'll just bull my way through... but it would be so much easier if I didn't have to do that at all! I guess that's one of the perks of the job.

I have also decided that I shoudn't try to pick out the next one for ANTM. I was really rooting for Brittany until she went on those "go sees". I really don't like any of the other girls. Oh well. Maybe next season.

Current Mood: drained

06:20 pm

Ok, so yesterday wasn't the best. I did go in and find out that my teeth are doing fine, just fine, but there is a caveat with that. Although my mouth was very clean from all the salt water rinsing that I did, there was a bunch of food in one of the holes left by my missing tooth. Now I have to "irrigate" the area every time I eat, and make sure that I get all the "leftovers" out of there. Ewww!!! At least I didn't have any infection, apparently that's grosser. EWWW!!!

When I got home, though, I called PJ and told him my good news, and he told me that his Grandma H had died at 5:30. She had been sick for a while, but we were kind of shocked. She had gone into the hospital on Monday, and was joking around with the nurses on Tuesday. She was talking to PJ's mom, and saying that she was thankful for her family, so I wonder if she had an idea... From all accounts it sounds like she died peacefully, in a deep sleep and quickly. Now to see how Grandpa H is doing. It seemed like they were keeping each other alive, so I wonder how long he'll last.

Lots to think about.

Current Mood: sad

10:31 pm - Ow, Ow,Oww!

Ok, so it's been a day, and I have had not much doing other than sitting on the couch, putting ice on my face, and gargling. It's only been a day, and I can't wait for the salt water thing to be over. The instructions I have say that I should only ice for the first 12-24 hours, but I'm thinking that I'll keep it up for a little while longer. The swelling seems to be going down a lot better when I have the ice pack.

We went out for a while today, got haircuts, and came home again. Hard to believe that I'll be back at work again tomorrow. Boo!

Picture goodness on Flickr

Current Mood: swollen

08:34 pm - I ainten't dead!

As of about 11:00 this morning, I now have three and a half less teeth. I'm no longer wise! Not there will be a big difference in my intellect, but I did have (most) of my wisdom teeth removed.

I went in at 9, got sedated, and the dentist worked on me for 2 hours! PJ was told to come back at quarter to 10, but because although I had 4 impacted molars, the one on the bottom of my right side was in so hard they must have worked on it for an hour alone. He eventually said he got most of it, and he could move it a little, but he didn't want to risk hitting the nerve any longer, and I was moaning. I wasn't meaning to, but man, he had been on that one side for a heck of a long time. I still don't think I would have rather gone under... I like knowing that I can remember him working on me. I also know that if I go under the knife like that again, that I should bring a sweater or a blanket, because my legs were doing some kind of dance all on their own.

After it was over, I got up walked straight out. I was so proud of myself, I didn't even feel any side effects! We went and got medication, T3's (!!), Dexamethazone (for swelling), and Clindamycin (since I'm allergic to penicillin) at Wallyworld and I almost made it out the door, until I had to use the debit machine. Apparently the only thing I could remember was my password, and tried that at every chance I could. On the plus side, there were lots of my co-workers that saw me, and are going to spread it around that I was in some kind of fight! Oh, the accolades! Ah, the attention!

We made it home, I had a cup of yogurt (my first food since 9 last night), a glass of water (my first since 12:30 last night), went upstairs and waited for my drugs to kick in. I never thought I drank that much water until I found i couldn't have any food or liquids. I still feel dry, and every time I think of it, I try to have some water. The one drawback is that eating is not high on my list of fun things to do... or opening my mouth for that matter... but the swelling is going down! I can actually feel the string for my upper stitches, and it's only my lower jaw that hurts.

Only a one hour nap today, so the drowsiness and severe diarrhea that I was warned about may not be a problem. Ah, PJ is home, and R from Kamsack is expected in the next half-hour to hour, so not a bad day, I think.

Current Mood: a little bit of everything

01:45 am - Wheee!

We have just come home from an evening of judo(on PJ's part), work(on my part), and drinking(on my part again). PJ came and picked me up after work, and said that beer was a good thing, and that a friend from out of town was in for a couple of days. Little did I know that I would be having 5 beer in about an hour and a half. Expensive, goofy, but I feel good right now, and we seemed to be having a good time there. I'm not certain, on account of being slightly less than sober.

Right now I'm in the chatty phase of drunk. I think that will end soon on account of sleep coming... NOW!!!

Hope all is well!

... that, and I've always wanted to see what my little star guy did when he was drunk!

hee hee hee!

Current Mood: drunk

10:54 am

I am: Ursula K. LeGuin Perhaps the most admired writing talent in the science fiction field.

Current Mood: geeky

12:48 am - Whew!

We are officially finished our holidays. Both PJ and I worked today, and are officially finished with traveling for at least a week. Or two... I think.

We had a trip out to Edmonton on the train, a big learning experience (for example, there are little rests that come out from under the seats... something that we didn't figure out until the trip back) where we found out that VIA is a very very warm way of traveling. We also found out that while supper is expensive (we had soup, salad, entree, a bun, dessert, and coffee for $53) it is also very tasty. Especially if you have to wait for an hour to eat it.

After we got to Edmonton on the train, we got to see a swimming lesson, have a quick bite to eat and then off to Calgary. We arrived in time for supper and a quick tour of Chateau Jeff and Susie. We played some cards, and then off to bed. J and S both had Monday off, so we just hung out for most of the day on Sunday went on a little tour of Inglewood, got some chocolates, and played more cards, and then we went out to Kaninaskis on Monday. We also had some fantastic ice cream at MacKays in Cochrane (just in time to delay supper by an hour) and got some great pictures.

Tuesday morning we drove back to Edmonton, and after a quick lunch and car rental return it was NAPTIME!!! It was a little later than usual (a bad trend for the rest of the week, sorry!) but Miss J was down for a couple of hours and we were able to crash too. We spent the rest of our trip visiting, playing cards, eating, and entertaining a very excited 2 year old. It's a good thing that we went home when we did, I don't think she would have been able to handle the excitement too much longer, she actually admitted to PJ that she was tired on Friday, something a normally thinking child would never do. It was fun to watch PJ and miss J playing together... she was definitely excited that we were visiting, and PJ and I were suckers for doing whatever she wanted to do. Even if it meant that we would figure out about halfway through that she was tricking us in to doing stuff that mommy and daddy-o wouldn't do. Sneaky, that one.

We even got to have a short visit with C+E and a round of Blitz. What fun! That's a game we just don't get to play often enough. I guess we can't find enough victims... I mean willing participants...right?

Saturday we got to see one more swimming lesson, have one last nap, and then got on the train. We were a little late leaving the station (half an hour) and sat on the siding another half an hour, but we made it back on Sunday AM in reasonably good time. We saw a little bit of a snowfall when we got in, and it's definitely colder here than in Calgary, but it's good to be home.

We had overnight guests, Mistress Mary and Rockin' Ronnie were in for a roast beef and bean supper put on by the church men's group, and we filled ourselves silly. We then came home to watch curling, and head to bed. This morning was MM's dental implant day, so RR dropped her off and then he, PJ and I went out for lunch. Good thing we were only 10 minutes late, because apparently MM was finished about 10 minutes early. We pulled into the parking lot to find her wandering aimlessly. If we had been any later, we might have missed her completely. Sounds like at least MM will return in about a week, so we'll have an update about that later.

Bed is calling. Missed my afternoon nap today. PJ is sounding very coldish, and he even missed Judo tonight... he must be getting sick. That's it! We've had too much holidays!

Current Mood: happy

04:24 pm - Mmm, chicken

We are having company for supper tonight, so we have a chicken cooking in the oven, with stuffing and the works. It smells good now, but soon we will be eating it too!

http://www.patrickjohanneson.com/giggleys.html

For those that need a giggley break... M is quite the mimicker!

Current Mood: hungry

02:52 pm - Whee

All is well in PJ and Justanauntie land. We spent New Year's in Winnipeg, after a slight delay. Well, more of a snowstorm that dropped a ton of snow on the capital. We got a later start than usual, but had a good visit with macmamma and her family, and also with the NEW BABY. We got to have a hold each, and the little guy only had 3 squawks the whole time we were there. CUTE! There are a couple of pics on our flickr site, so check out the baby goodness.

We are finally going to take a RAIL TRIP. We are headed out to the wild wild Alberta lands in the end of January (well really, it will be from the 19th to the 27th, but who's counting). So, get ready for some prime visiting mommygirl, and hopefully even a little... Blitz!

Yay, I'm so excited!

Happy New Year!

Current Mood: chipper

02:21 pm - Meh

We have successfully made it home, and I have survived the last couple of days of "Boxing Week"..., not from any great drive to help people, but by sure stubbornness. I am so glad that I have the day off today. I want to curl up into a little ball and sleep for several hours, but at the same time, I want to get out an actually do something worthwhile.

Turns out that I was crabby on christmas eve for a reason. Christmas day, I woke up to a general feeling of blah, and what felt like a 100 lb gorilla sitting in my chest. The perfect thing for going out and visiting grandparents, isn't it? I would feel terrible if anyone got sick from my determination to see everyone, but at the same time, if I didn't go and visit, I don't know when we would have been able to come out again. All of PJ's grandparents are doing well, his grandma H is doing the worst of them... but at 86, to still be in her own house and somewhat able to get around, I think that's ok. And both she and grandpa H still smoke like chimneys. They were telling me that I should have a nap at their house, but the thought of sleeping in a place where I could already feel my congested lungs tightening was a little too much to bear. A short visit there, a short visit with grandma J, and Oscar, and then back to the farm for a quick supper and back home, a game of canasta(which really didn't take long, on account of the ladies tromping the guys within the first couple of rounds), and then I went to bed. I was in bed by 9:30, and asleep by 10:15.

Thank goodness for that early sleep. I felt better on boxing day, and even better yesterday, but I think it's coming back to bite me today. Up until yesterday afternoon it was all in my chest. Now it's a full blown head cold. Bleh! I think I'll crawl under some covers, and see if I can't get around this...

Current Mood: sick