Ablutovestiphobia

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As I was writing another post on a forum I frequent, it occurred to me, dear readers, that I have never fully explained the origin of my aversion to laundry. I am in the midst of composing a real post, but thought that this story might amuse you.

This story is slightly embarrassing, but amusing, nonetheless.

For my third year of university, I moved to France. I ended up having my own teeeeeensy little studio apartment (180 s.f.) within the cité universitaire – I had a bathroom, “kitchen” and a living space of sorts. There was one building like mine (with about 200 units), and there were two traditional buildings, with about 100 rooms each). So three buildings total. And there was one washer and one dryer.

There are a few key things here, first, the situation isn’t *quite* as bad as it sounds because most French students went home for the weekend (and did their laundry there). Also, the French don’t wash their clothes as obsessively as North Americans do, so the load (pardon the pun) was lightened.

Also worth noting is the French love of administration and bureaucracy. And lastly, it is worth noting that while I speak excellent French, it is tinged with a strong Canadian accent....and in France (particularly in Tours, where I lived), there is a lot of snobbery surrounding accents. Let's just say that my accent closely resembled that of the french equivalent of a redneck....

After two weeks in France, of feeling a bit homesick and frustrated with red tape, I REALLY needed to do laundry. I had no more money to buy more socks or undies, so I knew it was time. I had heard there was laundry in this one building in my complex, so I headed over to that building, figuring I would find my way to some sort of Laundromat-like facility. Well, I couldn’t get into the building.

The cleaning lady of that building eventually saw me and let me in, and then asked where I was going. I told her I was going to do laundry. She asked if I had signed up, and I said no. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, obviously, you have to sign up, and that is in this other building (i.e., not the building where I lived, and not the building where the laundry was).

Okay. So I headed over to the other building to sign up. Thankfully, there was an open slot at that time, so this wasn’t nearly as complicated as it could have been. Despite getting a blast of crap for not having exact change for my laundry (another french obsession - exact change. egh. for this, you gave the administration money, and got a token in return), I still managed to both sign up and pay for my load of laundry. However, in order to get back into the building where the laundry was, I had to give the lady the key to my room. Kinda annoying, but oh well.

So I headed back to the laundry building, where I could now actually let myself in, but I couldn't find the Laundromat. After I very politely asked her, the cleaning lady irritably told me where it was, and yelled at me for being so obviously mentally deficient. I found my way in, but of course it was a European front-loading model, so I didn’t have a freaking clue how to work it, where to put the soap, how to turn it on, etc.

I went back in search of that kind, lovely cleaning lady (because of course it’s a weekend, there are no students around and I still can’t do my freaking laundry). My mental deficiency now confirmed, she started to yell at me, and proceeded to pick up the phone and give the admin lady a blast of crap that it’s not her job to help students, and what is up with these stupid international students who are so spoiled they don’t even know how to work a washer…etc.etc.

Feeling sensitive, homesick and frustrated, I just started to cry and stomped back into the laundry room. And of course I was also mortified at crying over the airing of my dirty laundry (culture shock manifests itself in the strangest ways...). Anyway, admin lady (who had already given me a blast for not signing up in advance, as well as not having the correct change) stomped in, said I was ridiculous for crying about laundry (a fact of which I was well aware, but it was just the culmination of a particularly frustrating time….the proverbial straw on the camel’s back…..), said I was a ridiculous spoiled girl because I didn’t know how to do laundry, and FINALLY showed me how to use that damned machine. Of course, by this point, I'm pretty much sobbing because I'm lonely, I miss my guy (now my hubby), I'm frustrated and I just want clean sheets!

The laundry finally started, I locked myself in the laundry room and cried for the rest of the 2-hour load. Is it any wonder I hate laundry?

Of course, for the rest of the year, I would do two or three loads at a time (very unusual by French standards), and between every load, I would run from the laundry building to the admin building to get my key back so I didn’t have to stay in the hellhole cell of a laundry room. I also got great pleasure out of the annoyance this brought the bitchy admin lady because she had to get off her duff to give me keys. And I learned that you never ever ask a unionized French worker to do something that’s not in their job description.

So that's the history behind my laundry trauma. Is there a specific phobia word for fear of laundry? Come to think of it, vestiphobia is the fear of clothing, and ablutophobia is the fear of washing. Perhaps we could coin the new term ablutovestiphobia.....fear of washing clothing....

Adjectival Nutrition

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My God I’m such a yuppie sometimes.

I was thinking this on Sunday morning as I dined on my breakfast of omega-3 eggs fried in cooking spray, chicken bacon, prairie bran whole grain bread, calcium-enriched OJ and organic shade-grown fresh-ground dark roast coffee. Good lord. What have this world and my psyche come to that nothing I dine on can be done sans adjectives. Oy. I guess I should just consider myself fortunate that I’m able to make such choices.

But honestly, sometimes I get so wrapped up in food and nutritional benefit that even I can’t get over it. I think about food almost all day. Is that normal? I’m thinking not.

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with food – I love how it tastes, but I hate how I feel after I’ve eaten too much of it. Disgusted with myself, flabby and unattractive. Yet my obsession continues…this morning, when I woke up….all I could think about was food. I had to resort to granola for brekkie (gag….too sweet!) and then just continued to think about my garlicky linguine for the next four hours until it was a time where I could safely devour it.

And now, I’ll continue to think about dinner (thai green curry with salmon, chickpeas and sweet potato) until the time comes to devour it. Then, I’ll spend like three more hours trying not to think about food, because if I eat after dinner, I lose all sense of self-control and moderation and just make a big pig of myself.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I long for an uncomplicated relationship with food. I long to be able to eat until satisfaction, and then to not think about food until the next time I have to eat. Some people work like that, but it seems I’m not one of them.

On the domestic front, things are progressing and regressing at the same time. The progression has occurred on our home renovations….the bathroom is now 98% complete (baseboard and trim need painting…and…well…doors would be nice) and the hallways is moving along. In terms of de-cluttering, I have finally divested myself of almost all my “wedding crap.” Yay for freecycle. It’s fantastic – I post a message with all the stuff I no longer wanted to keep – shoes, purse, decorations, papers, etc….2 minutes later someone e-mails me, and 1 hour later it is GONE. Of course, the 17 subsequent messages I got from desperate brides were a bit annoying….a couple in particular shared sob stories, or even outright demanded that I choose them. Bah….I’m not one to play favourites….I picked the first person. And yet the messages continue.

Hubs is a bit sad I didn’t sell the stuff, but honestly, it took me over a week to get to the post office with the shawl I was selling (I bus and didn’t hanker to hauling around with me ALL day until I could get to the post office, and his schedule was too busy to take me). It’s such a PITA to get shipping quotes, and to make sure payments are received….I just wanted the stuff gone. Hope I won’t regret that….even if I do though, I have over 1400 pictures of all of it!

The regression has occurred in the laundry department...um yeah....it seems I would rather arrange myself around a pile of unfolded clean laundry than actually ever fold it or put it away. Need to work on that....

And for the record….I’m not nearly as shallow as this blog would have you believe….I write on domestic matters, but I generally concern myself with far more. I just think it’s best for me to keep my political opinions to myself, lest they come back and haunt me at a later point. Current Reads: A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry and Shake Hands with the Devil, Roméo Dallaire.

Cupcake Wars

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So….not only am I the domestic UNgoddess, but I’m the worst blogger ever. Truly. My sincere apologies for having been so derelict in my blogging duties!!!!!

On both the professional and domestic fronts, life has been a bit hectic (though not in a bad way) so I haven’t had the energy and dedication that this really demands.

But on the up side, I’m back! And on the down side, so are my rather repugnant domestic habits. My kitchen looks (and is starting to smell….yikes!) like a really nasty bomb went off in it. I just haven’t had the chance to give it a thorough scrub. I had it pretty clean before leaving for the weekend, but then hubs took it over….and then Tuesday night, my dad came over (unexpectedly…) for dinner and didn’t leave until almost midnight. Last night I didn’t get home until after 11. Tonight will be the same. And so the mess and ick shall remain until tomorrow night….at which time I will attempt to resurrect some semblance of domestic normalcy. Oy.

Also, I haven’t done laundry in weeks….thank goodness for a lovely husband whose threshold for piles of laundry is so much lower than my own (or perhaps I just have too many clothes…I have a rather expensive habit of just buying more clothing when what I have isn’t fit to wear…).

But I haven’t been entirely unproductive. This past weekend I traveled across the province to help semi-host a bridal shower and bachelorette party for a good friend of mine. It all came off very well, except for the fact that there was food enough for at least 30 people and we only had 13 (the number was expected, but I had nothing to do with actually buying the food, so I had no influence on volume….seriously, who buys blue cheese at COSTCO for 13 people? Yuck.) So there were a lot of leftovers.

My contribution to the occasion was nice fluffy, tasty cupcakes. Except no one ate them. And I’m actually super pissed off about this. So I spent a night last week absolutely slaving away to make four dozen cupcakes. And I transported the blasted things across the province, icing gun in tow…decorated them, plated them and they look awesome. And then some shower guest WENCH brought a whole crapload of PURCHASED desserts (not home-made!) and set them out. And so people at the cheap, crappy, trans-fat laden purchased desserts and left my lovely cupcakes. GRRRR. Moral of the story – bridal showers are NOT potluck. Odds are, someone has put a lot of thought and effort into the menu. Do not taint the table with your purchased nastiness and definitely call before offering to bring anything. And I was even more pissed because I had to be polite to this stoopid woman who obviously thought she was being so helpful.

So we have lessons to learn from this:
- if you are invited to a party that does not state potluck, you are not expected to bring anything
- if you feel compelled to bring something, please call first and ask
- if the host declines, you definitely don’t need to bring anything
- if the host accepts, please don’t forget to bring the thing you said you would bring or a reasonable substitute
- if you are so rude as to just bring something without asking….at least make sure it’s homemade. If we had wanted to host a shower with purchased crap, we would have purchased it ourselves!

Bitter much, eh?

This brings me to my second frustration….pot lucks. I actually hold a special place in my heart for such occasions…reminiscent of wonderful special salads and secret family recipes. But there will always be those who will insist on bringing something that is so completely and utterly lame that it should never be marketed as potluck-worthy. I remember our Christmas pot luck at work. Most people made something tasty and home-made – chicken curry, beef curry (yay me!), meatballs, chili, salads, etc. If you don’t have the talent to bring something tasty and homemade, bring something tasty and purchased (preferably purchased at a fine foods store and not some gross grocery store salad or bag of chips). But this one person brought brown rice. Now, when I saw that on the list, I figured that the person was probably bringing something else as well (I mean…meat curry probably costs about $15 to make, and a dish of brown rice is practically free) or perhaps making a tasty and creative pilaf. But nope….come the day of the party, it was a sad, solitary Tupperware of plain brown rice. And the woman was basking in her brown rice glory all afternoon. Meh.

Tonight should be fun….my SIL is working on a project and I have offered to help. The unfortunate thing is that this project is in an area in which I have zero skill….will post updates and perhaps pictures tomorrow for your amusement and perusal. You shall all laugh at my expense. I’m looking forward to this weekend though – hubs’ birthday was last week, and mine is early next week….so we’re going out for a fab-u-lous dinner. I love fancy dinners. I also have a date with the weeds in my garden….I planted plants and they are doing great (only because it hasn’t stopped raining), but sadly, the weeds are also flourishing so I have to do something about them. Does anyone know what I can use along cracks and crevasses to kill weeds? I don’t do scary poisonous chemicals….is there something natural?

Thanks for reading! Here’s a cupcake picture to tempt your senses. I’m going to make more cupcakes next week and bring to work for my birthday. :) I’m going to make the famous Cinnamon-scented Devils Food cupcakes from epicurious.com – they look sooooo tasty. The two types of cupcake below are angel food with raspberry swirl filling (from www.foodandwine.com) and pineapple-coconut whole wheat cupcakes (based on the papaya coconut cupcakes from the chockylit cupcake blog)

He highlighted my hair and we're still married

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A weekend of domestic slavery, that’s what it is.

Yet again, after another action-packed weekend I return to work ragged and exhausted come Monday morning. But alas, the gods were smiling upon us this weekend.

Friday night, my little bro stopped in….along with two of his drunken friends…..it ended up that we had a little boy sleepover in our basement that night. I wasn’t thrilled, but they didn’t make any noise, nor did they worsen the pre-existing mess….so I let it slide.

Anyway, onto Saturday. This was a bit of a crazy day. I finally got rid of my “houseguests” by plying them with bacon, eggs and coffee (this had the desirable effect of rousting them out of the basement and into the bright sunshine of the main floor of the house). They happily ate and vacated the premises to nurse their aching heads elsewhere. As soon as our guests were gone, we ran off to our local Indian store. I love this store – they had every single thing I was looking for – what a labour saver!!!!!! I managed to find my samosas, chutneys, naan, spices and milk balls. Swweeeee---at.

Saturday afternoon was a curry’makin’ affair…..I made five curries in total. Our dining set actually arrived on time (shocking!) and we managed to get it inside and assembled (and set) before our dinner guests arrived. It was close, but worked out well. Sadly, two of the chairs are scratched on the seat. Very very annoying. This set was purchased for us by hubs’ parents, and it really wasn’t cheap, so it was very annoying to have two brand new chairs be all scuffed up. The company has said they will replace them for us. I always feel a bit bad…but at $200+/chair, it’s just not cool to start out with noticeable scratches.

Dinner only had one small catastrophe. I decided to cook my parsnip fries on the barbecue – I had all of the curries warming up in the oven. I thought 13 minutes would be a good amount of time for me to let them go, and then check on them. Apparently, 13 minutes on the barbecue can cause a wee bit of a carbonizing effect on spicy parsnip fries. Very sad to say they turned into a blackened mess just as the guests arrived. Thankfully, I had purchased TWO bags of parsnips, so I quickly peeled and sliced the next bag, tossed it in an oil/curry paste mixture and handed it off to hubs to throw anew on the bbq. The parsnips being only the latest in a long line of things that I have blackened beyond all recognition on the grill….I definitely don’t think it’s a cooking method that I should ever use. ;)

Dinner was a rousing success. There was so much food, it all turned out well, and I think my dinner guests really really enjoyed it. The only annoying thing was the female dinner guest kept asking me if I had made things from scratch….as I previously mentioned, I went out of character in buying things….so it just felt weird to have to admit that I had purchased these things. Booooo.

Sunday was no less busy. After staying up late to actually clean up the kitchen (this is a first…usually after a dinner party, hubs and I finish up the remaining wine and stumble off to bed), we slept in and then started to work. I am proud to say that I planted my very first outdoor garden. I have yellow Asiatic lilies, many colours of marigolds, and some cool spikey plant where I can’t remember the name. I just hope I don’t kill them all! Hubs spent this time giving the car a good cleaning.

After dinner, I made hubs make good on his promise of helping me highlight my hair….and you know what….it turned out better than I expected. There is one highlight I’m not totally thrilled with, but overall, it was a pretty successful endeavour. :) We used the Revlon Custom Effects kit in Chestnut. Hubs wouldn’t follow the directions and he hated the applicator (and as a result spent much time making little foil rectangles to isolate each dyed strip of hair), but he did a really good job. :) I will take pictures soon and post them.

Anyway, I should run now because I have a pounding headache. Also, my in-laws are stopping by tonight after dinner, so I need to go dust my piano (noticed on Saturday while guests were over that having all the windows open had caused it to be covered in yellow pollen….how embarrassing…..).

Have a good night!

PS – the link is www.bradgagne.net. On that site, click “Photos” and then click “Bunny Pictures” – we always have problems with copying and pasting links. Very annoying.

Take care – thanks for reading!

What goes up….must come down….

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‘Twas a sad day in Mudville. I had a crashing and somewhat depressing revelation last night.

I have to clean every day. For the rest of my life.

Meh.

I say “Mudville” because that is currently what my front yard is….we’ve planted grass, but it remains to be seen if any will actually sprout. I have high hopes for the green weeds and dandelions though. They are flourishing. Now, the night before last, I kindly asked hubs if *he* would take a turn and clean the kitchen…seeing as how I had done a thorough kitchen clean every day for the last week.

His version of clean and mine apparently suffer from a lack of communication. A clean kitchen does not mean filling up the dishwasher and starting it. I will admit there were a few extra dishes that wouldn’t fit, but it would have been nice to see washed pans, and wiped counters (the extra dishes could have just been piled). Anyway, I arrived home yesterday to pure kitchen chaos. Which is exactly what you want to encounter when you’re trying to throw together a yummy dinner. Sticky, gooey pans with the remains of the previous day’s dinner delicacies.

So, I set myself to work. I put together some yummy spinach/ricotta cannelloni. I’ve made this before where you don’t precook the noodles and I have to say, despite the PITA stuffing of limp noodles, it’s much better if you precook them. Very easy – set a big pot on to boil. Meanwhile, take a tub of light ricotta, mix with a beaten egg. Add 1 c. grated p.s. mozzarella, ¼ c. grated parmesan, 1 t Italian seasoning, ¼ t. nutmeg, salt, pepper, and thawed/drained chopped spinach from a 10oz package. Mix ‘em up. Meanwhile, throw the noodles in boiling water for about 5 minutes. When they come out, stuff them (it’s a pain – I use a little fork and it stilltakes a while). Put them in a greased 9x13, pour a can of pasta sauce over them, grate a little more cheese, and bake for 40 minutes at 350F. Easy as pie. Actually, pie’s a bitch. This is easier.

We’re having friends over for dinner tomorrow night, and this is going to be a bit of an adventure. See…the thing is, our dining room set has been well-loved. :D And, we are supposed to get our super-duper awesome custom new maple set at 5PM tomorrow. Our guests arrive at 7:30PM. Now, this leaves me with the unenviable task of a) hoping the set arrives on time, and b) figuring out where the heck to put the old set until the next day, when someone will take it off our hands. So here’s to hoping the dinner party works out and isn’t on the floor.

I’m cheating a bit this time….I’ve discovered that when I make everything from scratch, it tends to both freak out and intimidate people who don’t cook as often as I do. Since the lady of the couple we’ve invited has barely met us (she was our friend’s date to our wedding), I don’t want to scare her off (we NEVER get invited for dinner anywhere), so I will cheat.

Here is our vegetarian Indian feast menu:

Appies:
- roasted parsnip fries with curry yogourt dip (home-made)
- samosas with tamarind sauce and coriander mint chutney (bought…yay for living near all the Indian grocery stores…)

Salad:
- spinach salad with tamarind dressing and pappadum croutons (home-made)

Mains:
- my famous yummy veggie curry (potato, chickpea and peas in a tomatoey yummy sauce)
- eggplant curry (homemade)
- egg curry (TBD…not sure if I need it) (homemade)
- spinach and paneer curry (homemade)
- red lentil dal (homemade)
- basmati rice
- naan (bought!)
- raita (homemade)

Dessert:
- milk balls (bought)
- chai tea

What are your thoughts on the egg curry (yes, I mean curried eggs…very tasty!)? Is it needed? I’m thinking we’ll have leftovers for a LONG time. Yay!

Anyway, lets hope we don’t go cross cultural by eating Indian food off the floor….though I’m sure it would still be just as tasty.

I haven’t had time yet to highlight my hair, though I will post pics when I DO finally do it. :)

And by popular request, here is a link to my album of bunny pictures:
Bunny Pics!

I will update later this weekend on the status of my yard, my table, the dinner party and my hopefully-not-fried hair. :)

Neighbourly Love...

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It’s been such a crazy week at work that I haven’t had much of a chance to write anything! Yikes!

Tons of updates.

First, I am the absolute QUEEN of cleaning. Okay…that could be a slight exaggeration (to which my as-of-yet unpacked suitcase will attest)…but I actually had a really productive weekend. I spent Friday evening loafing around (truly, a favourite activity of mine). So come Saturday, my house was still disastrous. And of course my mom was coming….at like 10PM.

10:30AM….I get a phone call….it’s my mom, and she’s decided to swing by BEFORE the party they were going to….at 2:30PM. So my timeline is all of a sudden moved waaaaaaaaaaaaay up. I spend the better part of the morning and early afternoon in super clean mode.

In a nutshell, I did the following:
- changed linens in the guestroom, dusted it, swept and set out towels
- shop-vacced the rabbits (they LOVE that….), and vacuumed the basement living room floor and stairs….whisked away cobwebs in the process
- cleaned the guest bathroom – scrubbed off the NASTY scum, washed mirrors, sink, toilet and swept/washed floor
- full-on kitchen clean – dishes, counters, stove, cupboard, sweep/wash floors
- living room/dining room clean – dusting (puke), wiped the couch, swept and washed the floors.
- Main bathroom – washed out tub, counter, toilet, sink, mirror and floor.

I then started to unpack, but my mom arrived and that’s where it stopped.

We also got 4 cubic yard of rocks delivered on our driveway – 2 c.y. of gravel to make a patio to move our shed to, and 2 c.y. of river rocks to replace our trodden, sad, sorry side lawn. Poor hubs got to spend HIS weekend making our driveway passable (more on that later).

SO, after all this cleaning, and my mom’s quick drop-in, we head off to hubby’s sister’s house. They were away on their ‘wedding-moon’ in Mexico, due back at Midnight. So, we had a few surprises in store….
1) Our wedding gift to them was a patio set (Home Depot, the Key Biscayne set – it’s a great buy, nice quality and a good size). So hubs cleaned up their back yard, and set it up.
2) Hubs is a talented photographer, so he set up a photo collage of the best wedding pictures he took and mounted it in a really nice frame – we picked up the frame and the printed photos and he spend some time doing this.
3) Whilst he was busy doing all that….I cleaned his sister’s house. (Why stop when you’re on a roll?). Made me wish we had a smaller house! Their place was in a bit worse shape, but took SO much less time to clean (perhaps only because of super-clean mode) that it seemed like almost nothing! Wasn’t sure if the newlyweds would a) be happy to come home to a clean house, b) be weirded out that I cleaned their stuff, or c) be insulted that I thought their house needed cleaning. I’m hoping a)…..
4) My mom dropped off a gift for hubs’ sis and her new hubby – a gift basket filled with tasty snacks and some champagne. We set this up too.

When we picked the happy couple up at the airport, you could tell they were pretty tired, but hubs and I were pretty excited about all the surprises….so we helped them carry in their bags, and they noticed everything right away. :) Always rewarding to see hard work pay off!!!!!!!! I think they appreciated everything. It was fun to plan the surprise….(for the record, we had to go to their house everyday to feed their pet bunnies, so it’s not like they didn’t know we would be in their house….).

I have a fun neighbour story for you.

As mentioned previously, we had rocks delivered at the bottom of our driveway. This is a shared driveway, so now, in order to back out of our carport, we had to back onto the neighbour’s half of the driveway (either that or back on the front lawn….tacky). Our neighbour, whom I’ve long suspected of passive-aggressive anti-us tactics, decided that she should park halfway down her side of the driveway. Are you getting this picture…..the picture of our car, completely blocked into our carport, unless we back over the front lawn????????? (Which we actually had to do).

I noticed this witchy tendency of our neighbour months ago. Without fail, she parks in her carport. We often have people over, and they usually park right at the bottom of the driveway – this makes it possible to back somewhat diagonally out of the carport, onto the neighbour’s half of the driveway, and then out onto the road (and not have to move cars all the time). Well, the only time our wench neighbour (shall we call her WN?) does not park in her carport is, coincidentally, when we have someone over. It’s a pain, hubs would deny it, but I could tell….whatever though…you just move the other car and it’s not the end of the world.

But um…rocks? They DON’T MOVE. Not until you’ve made about a billion wheelbarrow trips in the slippery, sliding mud. So yeah…WN decided to block our car in. Out over the front lawn we went. Nice.

Hubs returned home later (I was out) and apparently he and WN exchanged words. Now, I totally understand property respect, but come ON. Is it really hurting her to have us back out over her driveway for 5 seconds. Grrrrrrrrrrr….you’d think we were asking for the moon. Anyway, hubs moved ALL the rocks that day and solved our problem.

Am I wrong in thinking this would be a nice neighbourly courtesy? That if you share a driveway that it would not be unreasonable to briefly pass over the other half? For god sakes…hubs shovels her driveway, shovels the roof (shared), he’s the one who was up on the roof in freezing rain chipping troughs in the ice to stop the leaking, I brought WN COOKIES. GAH.

Anyway….

Monday….was a day I’d rather forget, because I spent it outside in the cold, yanking crappy bits of weeds and dandelions all freaking day. Yuck. But my house was pretty clean. My bro came by for dinner that night (and stayed the night…I swear…B&B). He also put my cute GAP linen dress in the dryer. I think it might be RIP to that dress for me. Linen and the dryer don’t mix so well….unless my rib cage physically shrinks, I don’t think I could ever be small enough to fit in it now. :( Very sad. Men and laundry don’t mix.

Tonight, my dad is coming for dinner…and my brother has invited himself to stay yet again. Little do they know tofu and bok choy are on the menu…hehe. :) We’re having a dinner party on Saturday night….the theme of the night is vegetarian Indian, so that will be fun to plan and consume. Yum!

Weight has been yoyo....from a low of 131.5 since Mexico, to a high of 135.0 yesterday. Today was 133.5. Very sad starting point, but from there I shall go....

Me vs. the binge....

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I read an interesting theory a couple of days ago that really struck a cord with me. Maybe I’m the only person in the world who hadn’t thought about things this way before, but it was definitely something worth noting.

Any of you who have been longer-term readers (esp. of my previous blog) can probably note that I regularly have issues with overeating. Sometimes I binge, and I just can’t get why I couldn’t stop myself from doing it. (but…no worries, purging is not something I’ve ever done or plan to do!!!!!!!!)

The theory I read is that alcoholics can QUIT drinking. Smokers can QUIT smoking. Overeaters can’t quit eating. And that is the crux. I’m not saying it’s easy for the aforementioned addicts to rid themselves of their vices….merely that at least it is possible to rid oneself completely of the temptation. It’s pretty hard for a former alcoholic to drink in moderation. And while smoking in moderation is just as vile as chain smoking, you don’t see that happening much either. Those are all-or-nothing habits.

But with eating, you HAVE to continue eating. And worst of all, you don’t see people urging former alcoholics to have a drink, or former smokers to take a puff. But for overeaters….it’s always “oh, one slice won’t hurt” or “why bother dieting! Dig in!.” These statements can be extremely frustrating when you really are trying to be good.

And something I’ve discovered about myself is that I have real issues with moderation. Some people can eat one chocolate, or one slice of pizza. Or three fries. But I’m just not one of them. Instead of one chocolate, I eat a layer. I eat a whole pizza. And I definitely eat all my fries (seriously….what is WITH the people who can just eat a couple and then let the rest get cold….a huge part of me wants to shout “nooooooooooooooooo! Let MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee have them.”)

Anyway, not sure if that helped anyone, but at least it’s something worth noting. As I’ve written previously, it’s a microcosmic case of broken window theory. If I don’t eat any pizza, I’m fine. I actually love salad, fruit, yogourt, fish, etc. They are favourites. But as soon as the barrier is breached….all inhibitions go out the window and the entire pie is stuffed down my gullet. Yum. Same thing – if I just don’t have any dessert, I’m fine. But if it’s there, I can’t limit myself to just a bite. I admire those who can, but I CAN’T. I just have to eat it all. So very very sad.

Umm…did I mention that I am perhaps spurred on by my unplanned consumption of 600 empty calories on my way home from work???? I made the mistake of buying two healthy snacks at the grocery store.

PC Rice Crisps. Very dangerous. I bought the Japanese Wasabi and Honey. Picture just the right touch of pungent, acidic heat (like a really good Dijon) tempered with the sweet delicacy of honey. Yum. My burning mouth ate the whole bag on the way home.


They also come in a Tamari flavour, which I also managed to inhale half of. It’s also tasty, but not nearly so spicy as the wasabi. LOVE the wasabi. :)

Hopefully my taste for spice is quenched by tonight’s dinner – panfried red snapper with homemade fresh salsa (the kind with loads of jalopeno and fresh coriander) and basmati rice. Might make a watercress salad too. Might not.

However, one thing I really do have to do is a solid tidy. My mom is coming on Saturday afternoon, so the house has to be mom-ready (which sucks, because it’s somewhat of a disaster right now). Also, somehow in the week that we were gone, my father (or perhaps my brother?) managed to completely coat the shower in nasty-ass soap scum that *I* now get the joy of muscling away. I hate soap scum. How the heck did they get it to form so fast? Must be a new record.

The other issue I have is my dining room table (ooo! Excitement – our new dining table is ready and will be delivered in the next couple weeks….I am already salivating in anticipation of its solid maple beauty….swee-at). My current dining room table is located just opposite the front door. Consequently, it seems to find itself the most unfortunate recipient of constant barrages of mail, flyers and general crap. It seems to take about three minutes of us being home for it to be covered in crap. I’m trying to figure out a way around this with our new table. I really wouldn’t want to cover up all that nice wood with commercial marketing garbage. Any ideas?

Oh….and I really need to unpack tonight….

Thanks for reading!

The lunch vs. the briefcase

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Being the virtuous little soul that I am, I almost always bring my lunch to work. Every night when I make dinner, I always make sure that I make enough for us to have lunch the next day. It saves an enormous amount of money, doesn’t really take any more time, and generally just means that I have a yummy, healthy lunch all ready to go in the morning. All that’s left to do is grab a yogourt or two and some fruit.

Now, three years ago when I graduated university, I was a chronic backpack wearer. I had just got a spiffy *new* backpack, so this is what I brought to and from work every day. It was a great size, and perfect for carrying lunch, extra shoes, bottle of water, the odd work-related thing (seriously, who was I kidding this that whole schtick) and just random girly crap. I could load it up on the off chance I was going to the gym (though that was a squeeze), and it made it super easy to just randomly stop and get heavy groceries on my way home, etc. (I take the bus so am forced to carry everything I buy).

Hubs decided that my beloved backpack was juvenile and bought me a beautiful burgundy leather briefcase. It is a really really nice bag – not too old, not too young, and makes me look far more professional than I really deserve. :) But you know what….briefcases suck for carrying anything other than paper. They seriously do. They are also inconvenient for carrying heavier things – I have a semi-permanent patch of miniscule broken capillaries on my right shoulder from carrying it. Of course, I’m not certain that you’re supposed to walk nearly so much with your briefcase (I walk the last 25 minutes to work, and vice-versa in the afternoons). But that said...a briefcase can handily hold up to three bottles of wine. More if you buy gewurtstraminer (long skinny bottle).

So that brings me to my issue….my freaking lunch will only go in my briefcase sideways. There is not a plastic storage container on the market that will fit right-side-up in my briefcase. The issue with this is that with all the bouncing around from walking and racing after busses….I end up with my lunch leaking. :( Sometimes it just leaks a bit within its bag….other times it makes a royal mess and gets all over everything. So what’s a girl to do? I have cheap plastic containers – they leak. But so do the pricier ones that I have. I don’t want to start carrying a thermos (and you know what, they leak too! And they’re too heavy). So should I go back to the backpack? And risk the scorn and derision of all who see me, a purported professional, traipsing about with a juvenile backpack. Meh. I do not know.

Anyone know of super-duper containers that DON’T leak when put on their side for prolonged periods of time (like, say, 2 hours)? Thx.

On a domestic note, I’ve really been exploring my masochistic tendencies lately….as if it wasn’t enough to have two ‘mega’ dinner parties coming up, I have also randomly invited over a couple of friends for more casual dinners on a couple of week nights. I’m becoming such a home-body….my friends suggest going out for dinner…I look at my bank account and suggest they come over instead….

Dinner tonight is a casual curried vegetable stew with fresh baguette. Hope it’s tasty – it has sweet potato, zucchini, beans, etc. and is spiced with curry and chili powders, as well as saffron and then sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Very different combination. I guess I shall have to boot my butt into gear because I invited a friend over for dinner tomorrow night and she hasn’t even seen my house before….so I’m going to have to do an all-over tidy tonight. Bleaaaaaaaaah.

What’s in a name….

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As many of you know, I was married pretty recently, to an awesome (and hot!) guy who is even better than any guy I could have imagined for myself. Everything is great – my family likes him, his family likes me, and all is well.

Except one thing.

I’m having some name change issues. I didn’t think I would have them, but I am. I started having them just a couple of days after the wedding….we received our first envelope addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Hubby’sname Lastname.

Ummm..excuse me? I no longer merit mention on the envelope? I am supposed to satisfy myself with my three letters and punctuation portion of the address? This just doesn’t work for me. In fact, it’s happened a couple of times since (on invitations, cards and the like) and every time I get an envelope with that particular form of address on it….I have to fight the urge to throw it on the ground and shriek like a banshee in a full-on toddler tantrum.

Okay…maybe that’s overreacting a bit. But seriously…what is with this antiquated form of address. I cannot take it. In fact, I’m at the point now where I don’t want to change my name any more. I just find this so utterly offensive. It’s as if I, half the relationship (better or worse…take your pick ;) ) don’t really count anymore. You know what, I have not even written my married name on anything yet. I’m just not quite ready…and I don’t give a flying fart that classical etiquette states that it’s a proper form of address. If we kept all classical etiquette, there would still be slaves and women wouldn’t be voting.

Hubs thinks I’m overreacting. I suggested he take my name, at which point he accused me of being ridiculous. Well…case in point, nobody wants to lose their identity. It’s tough because I’m just at the point in my career where I am *starting* to develop a reputation…I don’t want to undo all that by changing my name and no one being able to find me. I don’t want to hyphenate. I just am not sure what to do.

One thing is for certain though…I have to figure out a way to politely broach the topic with both my MIL and GMIL that envelopes addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Hubby’sname Lastname are NOT cool. I am totally cool with Mr. and Mrs. Hubby’sname and Myname Lastname. But not with the former. I will not stand for it, and I refuse to read it on envelopes for the next fifty years.

On a lighter note, I’m sure you will all be ecstatic to know that I did eventually do the dishes last night….at like 1AM. I didn’t do any hand-washing, but I did unload and reload the dishwasher. It’s always a good first step. Dinner tonight should be tasty – an Indian cheese and spinach curry, along with lentil dahl and basmati rice. Yum! :)

Thanks for reading….sorry for the rant…I figured it was domestic enough to share….

Before&After

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It was the best of weekends; it was the worst of weekends.

Have you ever had a weekend go by and just wondered where the heck it went? We had a good weekend - nothing spectacular, but okay. I'm just having a hard time believing that it's already Sunday night and there is little to show for it.

I loafed around for most of the weekend....thankfully, I finally finished my thank you cards. Six weeks....not too bad. :) And they all went out with a picture and all that. :)

Aside from that, I had a good workout (you're ecstatic, I'm sure) and that's pretty much it. Friday night, the kitchen was disastrous, so I started dinner (marinated salmon steaks), but then gave up and ordered greek. Yesterday, we went out for dinner. Hubs was nice and productive yesterday though - pouring cement, caulking cracks, etc. Nice.

Blah. So we got to today....messy house, nothing exciting to do. Hubs went to play hockey (I was tempted to rollerblade but balked at the idea of rollerblading alone - i'm brutal and clumsy and there is no way that anything like that would end well.).

So I decided to tackle the kitchen and the living room. I will give you a before and after so you know what I was working with. ;) Our house is still under renos, so the kitchen is more of a work in progress than a finished product. On the upside, it's proof positive that you don't need a wicked kitchen to successfully make a meal.

Before:


After:


And here's the opposite corner of the kitchen. I have big plans for installing another counter/cupboard unit there, but in the meantime, it's a hand-me-down micro stand, a portable pantry and patio bistro set. Oh...and does anyone else have the problem of empties piling up? The boy SAYS he will take them away, but they seem to sit around the house for quite some time....and then when we do bring them back, we look like the worst sort of lushes...


And the living room transformation. It went from being tax/thank you card central to a nice setting for a romantic meal. :) Also, I hate doing taxes. I'm doing better now than before, but still a ways from gettin' back the moolah. I hate forms. There is nothing I hate more than forms.


And after....set for a feast of fresh baguette (with olive oil and balsamic), spring mix salad, marinated salmon steaks (the ones we were supposed to eat on Friday), steamed asparagus and jasmine rice. Dinner was sooooooo yummy. Except hubs is slowly transforming into a wine snob - he 'rejected' the first bottle we opened, so we had to open a different one. hahahaha. I'm not going to let him live that one down. He's getting as bad as I am with Shiraz....(there is something about that varietal that I just don't like. I can taste it everytime, even if I don't see a label.


Well, have a great Sunday night. I shall continue sipping my wine, and then contemplate doing the dishes. It just never ends...

Encrusted Spring Mixed Greens

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Yup. That's what happens to 'em if you leave them drenched in vinaigrette in the salad bowl overnight. Ew. First they go mushy, and then they dry to the bowl so they're almost impossible to get off. Grossness.

So I broke my near perfect streak. Blah. It just seems like there isn't enough time. I got home yesterday (to a pretty decent kitchen) at about 6:15. Hubs and I unloaded the dishwasher, and I set to work at making dinner.

Apparently stuffed meatloaf and roasted taters take a little longer than I had anticipated. My FIL showed up at about 6:40 or so, but dinner wasn't ready until about 8. So, we enjoyed our dinner (stuffed meatloaf is SO good - filled with chopped mushrooms, zucchini, red pepper and onion, and monterey jack cheese - yum!), and chit chatted for a bit.

While hubs and his dad watched the tail end of the game (as IF montreal crushed us), I loaded and started the dishwasher. But there were way too many dishes for it, and besides, I don't normally put things like 9x13 pans or salad bowls in (they just take up too much room).

Well, after the dishwasher ran, I also joined the boys to watch the last couple minutes of the game, and then FIL left and I worked out. By the time my workout was over, it was late and I was tired, and didn't feel like handwashing dishes.

Of course, the dishes were still there this morning. :( Nothing sucks more than first thing in the morning, when I'm trying to just start the coffee pot (before going to the bathroom and showering), and I can't get the damn pot in the sink to fill it up because it's full of dishes. Meh. So I'm literally dancing around the kitchen, just trying to get the coffee started. (My coffee maker isn't super swift, and I am on a tight schedule in the morning....if I don't start it before my shower, I don't get coffee).

Anyway, got that all together. Now, wouldn't you know that I just forget my stupid coffee mug on the table, and don't realize it until I'm halfway down the street. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. And with taking the bus...you don't just turn around to go get it. Poopers. So I bought coffee when I got to work.

My house is kinda messy, and DH still hasn't made the bed (I bed), but it's been far worse. I'm just not looking forward to de-encrusting my salad bowl tonight. I hate doing dishes before dinner, because it puts me even LESS in the mood for doing them after dinner. Poopy poopy.

The Joys of Home Ownership

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Well….I am definitely doing better. In the last week, I have not only swept my house twice (this is huge - not my house, but the fact that I swept it!!!!!!), but I have also not let the dirty dishes take over my kitchen (as they are extremely wont to do). AND I even changed the bunny litter box once.

Of course, I still have yet to make my bed (brutal, eh?) and I have been walking *around* a full box of recycling fodder for a week because I am simply too freaking lazy to drag it outside.

Since I have been such a total procrastinator, I will update you with my domestic achievements since we last spoke.

I successfully made my first cheesecake. Not only was it a fabulously chocolatey cheesecake, but it was low-fat. Do you hate me yet? Hehe. I highly, highly, highly recommend the “Eat, Shrink & Be Merry” cookbook. You too can be a domestic goddess. :) The only truly disappointing aspect of the cake is the MASSIVE crater-like crack that crept across its surface as it cooled. So sad. Thankfully, I figured out how to cover it up. A thin layer of ultra-low-fat cool whip (woo-hoo for hydrogenated, man-made ingenuity!), some thinly-sliced strawberries, and some drizzled chocolate. Oh ya.

Eat it and weep baby.


I also even managed to take pictures of my living room. Not only is there no clutter (you have no idea of the challenges of keeping that damn table clear), but it’s starting to look fabulous. To me at least. I’m sure there are those who would perhaps take exception to my orange room. I love it though. You know, it was funny, I just recently read a post of someone who had just repainted their entire house in Benjamin Moore paint. I could tell she had really put a lot of work into the whole colour scheme…but you know what…I hated it. The whole damn house was SO neutral, it didn’t look like a real person could possibly live there. I know that neutrals are in, and I am well-aware that no sane individual would ever buy my house with the living room the way it is…but to paint your whole house in BEIGE? Ack.

I just love this room. It’s our formal entertaining room (and also the entrance to our weeny house). We use this room mostly at night, and it just looks so fun and warm and cozy in candlelight. Anyway, you be the judge. Also, I am desperately seeking some funky awesome painting to hang above our couch. Haven’t found it yet…any ideas? We have a new dining table on order. Our current one photographs pretty well (believe me, this pic is WAY better than reality), but honestly looks as though a large rodent (a beaver, perhaps?) munched on the legs of everything. Two of the chairs are broken, the cushions are green and the top of the table…well…let’s just say that I am developing a fabulous collection of tablecloths.

With no further ado, this is what my living room is SUPPOSED to look like all the time. Very rare that it looks like this. We’re still looking for the right coffee table, and I really want awesome pillows for the couch – shades of orange raw silk would look cool, I think.


And here is the ‘dining’ half of the same room.


So they aren’t too too shabby. I am so excited about our new table though…I will post a pic when it arrives at the end of May. :)

Now, my mission for this week is to train my hubby to make the bed. With all of its decorative pillows. Really, it isn’t my responsibility to make the bed, because I am the first one up. And I don’t really want to make it at the end of the day when I get home from work. So it shall be up to hubby. My other mission tonight is to finish the rest of the thank you notes for my wedding. There aren’t very many left, and I would really like to get them sent off before I become an etiquette pariah. :)

Thanks for reading!