Well, I hit my monthly limit on flickr today, so I guess no more pictures unless I upload them onto blogger. Bleh. I don't use the damn account for months and then suddenly have pictures and now I have to wait...
Oh well.
There are some random pics of Philly and NY up now in my 'Trips' set after the Toronto/Niagara Falls pics.
Ticker
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
What I wish I were having for breakfast this morning
Mmmmm.... Caramelized challah french toast stuffed with farmers cheese and bananas topped with vanilla bean maple syrup from Sabrina's Cafe in Philadelphia. The strawberries would be extra. Eating half of this is a triumph, if you ask me...I took this picture last Friday while dining with Wendi. She had some pretty awesome sweet potato fries happening on her plate over to the left.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
The Move, Part 1
Holy cow, it sucks to move to a new place. I, personally, have not started to move, but this weekend we moved Julie from the basement to the third (top) floor of the building. I ache in places I didn't know I could ache in. I took pictures of the apartment before we really started moving stuff on Friday night and I wanted to upload them to put on here but I forgot my camera at the apartment tonight. I'll get it later this week and put 'em up.
We actually managed to do it in 24 hours, which I thought wouldn't take as long because it's only a one bedroom apartment. Man, can stuff accumulate in six months! Julie keeps all sorts of things that I would consider junk and she knows this. We discussed it and decided that while moving, I would put things aside of hers that I thought should be chucked or donated. She would then take a look at the stuff and plead her case for any items she really wanted. About six trash bags later it still looks like there could be more weeding out. We went through her clothes this morning and two bags are going to charity or the garbage bin.
"Babe, I like this shirt a lot."
"When was the last time you wore it?"
"Um... I don't remember."
"I have never seen you wear it."
"Oh, alright then." (said in a dejected British accent)
The only thing I absolutely made her throw out was her wedding dress. The rest she had a chance on. She didn't put up much resistance on the dress though...
And yeah, this won't be one-sided. My stuff will be weeded out next. A one-bedroom apartment with a little storage room is not big enough for two women's possessions unless there is serious chucking done. I'll be doing that this week while I'm back here at my parents' place. I also have about three loads of laundry to do because I haven't done any since before I went to Philadelphia. It seems like a long time ago but that was less than a week ago. Wow. This week has felt like a month long! This weekend was the longest I've had in a long time, mainly because this is only the second Saturday I've had off in about three months. Thank goodness for the busy season being over at work (although it's still super stressful due to low inventory, but whatever...)
Oh, speaking of work, I found out on Friday that I will be making more on vacation this year than I will working normally. The reason for that is because vacation rate is based on a percentage of what I made the previous year. Well, due to having no back-up last year, I worked an insane amount of overtime (which unfortunately also bumped me up into a higher tax bracket that I wouldn't normally reach), this year's vacation rate is based on all of that money as well.... so this year, even after my 5% cost of living increase, I'll be making just over $3 more an hour on vacation! Last year was the other way around. Due to getting a raise for being in my position for a year, plus hitting over five years with the company and getting four weeks of vacation time from the previous three, it somehow worked out that my vacation rate was over $4 less than my hourly rate working normally. It killed me to use vacation time last year because it was such a reduction in pay. This year will make up for it though, yay!
Okay, time to get my ass to bed. It's nearly 11 pm and I'm going to be dead tomorrow!
Today I'm grateful for:
* My American twin updating her blog
* My understanding girlfriend
* My humidifier
* Half the moving finished
We actually managed to do it in 24 hours, which I thought wouldn't take as long because it's only a one bedroom apartment. Man, can stuff accumulate in six months! Julie keeps all sorts of things that I would consider junk and she knows this. We discussed it and decided that while moving, I would put things aside of hers that I thought should be chucked or donated. She would then take a look at the stuff and plead her case for any items she really wanted. About six trash bags later it still looks like there could be more weeding out. We went through her clothes this morning and two bags are going to charity or the garbage bin.
"Babe, I like this shirt a lot."
"When was the last time you wore it?"
"Um... I don't remember."
"I have never seen you wear it."
"Oh, alright then." (said in a dejected British accent)
The only thing I absolutely made her throw out was her wedding dress. The rest she had a chance on. She didn't put up much resistance on the dress though...
And yeah, this won't be one-sided. My stuff will be weeded out next. A one-bedroom apartment with a little storage room is not big enough for two women's possessions unless there is serious chucking done. I'll be doing that this week while I'm back here at my parents' place. I also have about three loads of laundry to do because I haven't done any since before I went to Philadelphia. It seems like a long time ago but that was less than a week ago. Wow. This week has felt like a month long! This weekend was the longest I've had in a long time, mainly because this is only the second Saturday I've had off in about three months. Thank goodness for the busy season being over at work (although it's still super stressful due to low inventory, but whatever...)
Oh, speaking of work, I found out on Friday that I will be making more on vacation this year than I will working normally. The reason for that is because vacation rate is based on a percentage of what I made the previous year. Well, due to having no back-up last year, I worked an insane amount of overtime (which unfortunately also bumped me up into a higher tax bracket that I wouldn't normally reach), this year's vacation rate is based on all of that money as well.... so this year, even after my 5% cost of living increase, I'll be making just over $3 more an hour on vacation! Last year was the other way around. Due to getting a raise for being in my position for a year, plus hitting over five years with the company and getting four weeks of vacation time from the previous three, it somehow worked out that my vacation rate was over $4 less than my hourly rate working normally. It killed me to use vacation time last year because it was such a reduction in pay. This year will make up for it though, yay!
Okay, time to get my ass to bed. It's nearly 11 pm and I'm going to be dead tomorrow!
Today I'm grateful for:
* My American twin updating her blog
* My understanding girlfriend
* My humidifier
* Half the moving finished
Friday, January 4, 2008
And I wonder why I'm moving...
The main reason I'm moving in with Julie is because my relationship with my mother is pretty strained these days. We work for the same company and started out at the same level, except now after six years, I have a higher position in a different department and make a little more money (only about a dollar more an hour, I think) than she does. She has never really gotten used to it, even though I've been in this position for three years and for a year before that was actually her supervisor. It's just a really sucky situation to be in because she will come home and complain about things at work and I will see and know the other side of it, so naturally we get into an argument or she'll blame me for something or she'll get mad at me for not speaking to her (when really I'm just trying to avoid a bad situation). She is not liking her job right now and I feel bad for her, but it's really hard to shoulder the stress of my position plus the stuff she's worked up about. And then there's the fact that she doesn't treat me very well at work. She takes out a lot of her frustrations on me, mainly because she can get away with it, and also because I plan production so if I've scheduled something she doesn't like, she lets me hear it.
I think that being away from her after work will definitely help things a little. Personally, when I leave work, unless I've brought something home to work on, I don't want to think about it at all. To come home and hear bitching and moaning about some thing or another, well, it feels like I haven't left work at all.
So... I decided that I should move out. The problem is that there are not a lot of nice places for rent (that are finished being built) in the area that aren't smoke-smelling basement apartments or rooms in houses. And the cheapest rent for the scummiest dwelling is $900/mo. Anything even worth considering is between $1200 and $1600/mo. I definitely cannot afford that on my own, so that's where the moving in with Julie thought happened. I didn't want to move in with her just to have someone to share the rent - I wanted to do it for the right reason. And, low and behold, I think I'm ready to take a step I've never taken before.
I think that being away from her after work will definitely help things a little. Personally, when I leave work, unless I've brought something home to work on, I don't want to think about it at all. To come home and hear bitching and moaning about some thing or another, well, it feels like I haven't left work at all.
So... I decided that I should move out. The problem is that there are not a lot of nice places for rent (that are finished being built) in the area that aren't smoke-smelling basement apartments or rooms in houses. And the cheapest rent for the scummiest dwelling is $900/mo. Anything even worth considering is between $1200 and $1600/mo. I definitely cannot afford that on my own, so that's where the moving in with Julie thought happened. I didn't want to move in with her just to have someone to share the rent - I wanted to do it for the right reason. And, low and behold, I think I'm ready to take a step I've never taken before.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Next Step
Well, it's decided. I'm moving in with Jules sometime in the next couple of weeks. She's moving from a one bedroom basement apartment to a one bedroom third floor apartment with a balcony... and I'm moving in with her. We were hoping they'd have a two bedroom available, but not at this time. Actually, Ryan, our mutual friend, took the last available one. He's moving in this weekend and now we're moving Jules this weekend as well.
This is quite a step for me, I must say. I'm mildly panicked about it and I'm going to hate the commute, but at least it's only a six month lease, so we can look for something closer to where I work in the summer. As it is, her work is right across the street from where she lives. With her moving upstairs and on the other side of the building, I was joking that she could now tie a cable from the balcony to the roof of her work and slide down in the mornings... y'know, to cut down on the commute across the street *rolls eyes*. For me, it'll take about 35-45 minutes, which isn't the end of the world, but I have to go through the busiest part of downtown in order to get to the suburb that I work in. Not looking forward to that, but for now it's the easiest. We were looking for something here in Sherwood Park, but there are slim pickings around here - what we did go look at looked terrible and definitely not worth the price.
Time for bed. Hopefully I don't have nightmares about moving!
This is quite a step for me, I must say. I'm mildly panicked about it and I'm going to hate the commute, but at least it's only a six month lease, so we can look for something closer to where I work in the summer. As it is, her work is right across the street from where she lives. With her moving upstairs and on the other side of the building, I was joking that she could now tie a cable from the balcony to the roof of her work and slide down in the mornings... y'know, to cut down on the commute across the street *rolls eyes*. For me, it'll take about 35-45 minutes, which isn't the end of the world, but I have to go through the busiest part of downtown in order to get to the suburb that I work in. Not looking forward to that, but for now it's the easiest. We were looking for something here in Sherwood Park, but there are slim pickings around here - what we did go look at looked terrible and definitely not worth the price.
Time for bed. Hopefully I don't have nightmares about moving!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
My New Year's
On New Year's Eve, I was asleep by 10 pm, drugged up on painkillers. I woke up around 12:10 am, looked at the clock and passed out again until 11:30 am. I then had an agonizing day of hobbling around and of course cramps that decided to happen all damn day. I took more pain meds in the evening, fell asleep around 10:30 pm and didn't wake up until 3 am when Jules had a nightmare and yelled right in my ear, "GET OUT OF MY ROOM!", to which I nearly had a freakin' heart attack, woke her up and told her she nearly scared me to death. Her response was to say, "I just had a nightmare and you're worried about your hearing?!" and then she promptly passed out again. It took me a while longer to get back to sleep. Yeah, later on in the morning I filled her in on it and she couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous her statement was. She was like, "I remember when you woke me up, I was laying right next to your head, so that must have been really loud. I'm sooooooooooo soory!" Heh... it's funny now.
Anyway, my point was that I think I finally caught up on my sleep because when my alarm went off at 5:45 am, I didn't feel comatose. I actually had energy to do stuff at work. I haven't felt like that in a long time. Of course I've been working long hours for months now, so I'm pretty sure that's why. I hope that this will continue now that my hours have returned to normal. I'm excited just thinking about having Saturdays off again...
I have pictures I took in Philadelphia and New York but I'm too lazy to put them up yet. I think I'm going to go watch another episode of CSI - seventh season.
Today I'm grateful for:
* My girlfriend
* My grandparents
* My kitties
* Great friends
* Weekends off
Anyway, my point was that I think I finally caught up on my sleep because when my alarm went off at 5:45 am, I didn't feel comatose. I actually had energy to do stuff at work. I haven't felt like that in a long time. Of course I've been working long hours for months now, so I'm pretty sure that's why. I hope that this will continue now that my hours have returned to normal. I'm excited just thinking about having Saturdays off again...
I have pictures I took in Philadelphia and New York but I'm too lazy to put them up yet. I think I'm going to go watch another episode of CSI - seventh season.
Today I'm grateful for:
* My girlfriend
* My grandparents
* My kitties
* Great friends
* Weekends off
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