DIET

This post is going to be short and sweet, well maybe not sweet.  Its about accountability.

When I get back from Mexico I am going to start on a one year journey.  I have to permanently lose weight, once and for all.  And realistically its going to take a year to get the weight off and be in the habit of healthier eating and lifestyling.  

In the spirit of accountability I will put on the same outfit each week and take two pictures...front and side.  Hopefully by next year it will be hanging off me!

And I am also going to do an exercise program I saw on a program the other day.  I have already been doing it and it suits me to a perfect tee.  It's called the One Minute Workout.....its really interesting and it fits into my daily lifestyle pretty easily.  I wish I had an exercise bike though.  Would be handy.

Anyway enough of that.  Last night I had cleaned up one of the messy bedrooms and put up a folding table.  I am putting up the ironing board in there today.  But I sorted all through my clothes and put together enough stuff for the trip.  They are all folded on the table waiting to be ironed and packed.  I was shocked at how much didn't fit me. Dang it!  (shovel list).  And I cleaned up Purple Room.  Again.  

I am cooking broccoli and mushrooms...not together.  I had a lot left over and have two days to eat everything.  Yesterday I bought the tomato and basil soup from Safeway.  It used to be Spod's fave soup.  I never really ate it...I liked the baked potato or broccoli and cheese ones.  But my tastebuds have def changed.  That soup was so delicious and unfortunately it will NOT be on my food diet after Mexico.  Why oh why are the most yummy things in this world not healthy enough to be eaten all the time?  Makes me sad.

Well I had better go toss my mushrooms.  They smell so good and I definitely can eat all I want of them.  This reminds me of Spod when he cooked.  He would get out his fave med. sized frying pan.  He would put onions and wee potatoes in it, butter and salt and pepper, cover it with a too small lid so steam could escape, and walk away.  He would leave it on medium low and come back in half an hour, shake the pan up to turn things, and walk away for another half hour.  Then he would have the perfect pan of oniony potatoes.  He would put that on a plate and then fry two eggs, over easy, slide them on top of the potatoes and have the perfect meal.  He did that often. 

So I just talked to Alice.  I asked how she was and she said that she is fine.  She just has a lingering cough.  So thank goodness...no lung cancer.  I get to keep my very expensive, amazingly good house cleaner.

Gotta roll....lots to do.   TTYL

FAT AND DON'T CARE!

I am trying hard to care...I am big again.  Sigh.  I had become about as skinny as I can ever hope to get last summer.  Having a giant sick making polyp (TMI...sorry), and having an operation and then getting infected..leant itself to weight loss.  Sitting around, keeping to my fifty steps a day, and eating bologna sammiches lends itself to weight gain.  Consequently nothing summerish, at least the nice stuff, does not even remotely fit.  So a plan B had to be enacted.

And plan B involved trips to the hellhole for a rubbermaid of past fat clothes (definitely NOT the nice stuff) and a couple trips to the fat lady store.  Today I spent a fruitful half hour in there.  Eeegads!  Some of the choices were scary.  I was kind of hoping to find one sun type dress that I could wear every night down there in Mexico.  But the only available choices were downright ugly.  The last time I wore a dress was at my niece Jeni's wedding and that was about ten years ago.  I wasn't this huge back then and I saw a pic of me dancing with Bill and seriously I looked like a giant mobile tablecloth...or tent.  Not happening again.

But I did find a couple of coooolotts (or capris) and a couple of dressy tops.  That will have to do. And thanks to my awesome sister, who marched into that store with me the other day to help me find bathing suit covers, whipped out garment after garment until I'll be damned if she didn't find not one, but two items that were perfect!

I have been getting charlie horses again...really easily.  Just the tiniest cough or movement slightly different than my body is used to, causes crippling muscle spasms in odd places.  If I sit down absolutely still, I am okay.  And I have to stay that way til the muscle memory those evil bastards have gets forgotten.

So today in the farthest possible corner from the changing room in the fat lady store, I was reaching up, waaaay up to get a shirt down to try on.  And BAM!!! I got a spasm in my right rib cage.  Holy Crap!!!  They are awful!

  So I bent way over to the left and threw my right arm up and over my head and contorted myself into an opposite position and crab hobbled over to a chair outside the changing room.  And wouldn't you know it, just about every robust rotund round chunky lady in town was in there today.  So embarrassing. Even in the chair I had to contort way over the side of the chair with my arm awkwardly slung over my head and freeze that way for a good five minutes.  I'm sure I looked like a special person, everyone gave me a very (unnecessary I felt)wide birth.  Eventually I was able to straighten up and continue on.

Graeme is borrowing my jeep whilst I am in Mexico.  He wanted to do a test run before borrowing it, which was probably a good idea.  Tank can be pretty obnoxious at times.  So a couple days ago I drove down to his place and he took over the wheel.  We drove up to Barnhartvale and stopped at The Pond for lunch.  The place is awesome.  They have a store full of crazy fun stuff and their food is delicious.

We left there and crossed the river at lafarge and came back to Kamloops on the other side.  I love that drive.  Anyway he got a feel for Tank.  He is going to drive to Rossland to visit his folks while I am gone.  And possibly he will help Anton move stuff up here.  The jeep isn't very big but it does carry a couple of boxes at a time!

I have talked with Monte a few times.  He is doing so well.  Being off all meds is clearly helping for now.  He is dropping weight too which can only be a good thing.

Kathy hosted a baby shower for Stirling.  I gave her a hand and seriously, we had so much fun.  Its nice for the guests to just show up and admire baby and eat shower food and play a couple silly fun games.  But the real fun is in the planning, shopping and executing.  She and I did the dollar store with a  vengeance!  So much fun!  And we decorated, making big yellow flowers, hanging banners and streamers and decorating the table etc.  Then of course the best part of all making the food.  She made the most beautiful fruit thingy you ever saw!  I will put some pics below for those who aren't facebook peeps.  And Stirling was a perfectly good baby all the way through.  Now his sister Ainsley...well she is such a hoot.  What an interesting kid she is!

I just have to say here...this is exactly why I moved back to Kamloops.  Nothing can replace a sister.  We used to talk about how great it would be to live close by to each other and the fun we could have.  And now we are doing it.  There is no one else on earth that has that shared history the two of us have and you know its just different.  Perfect.

The other day Ainsley had one of her very rare melt downs.  She was just too tired.  So she was howling and crying and had been for a little while.  Finally Kathy went into the kitchen and trying to distract her asked her to bring a stool over so she could help do something there on the counter.  So she turned around, and still full crying, went over to the stools and sobbing away she chokes out, "Okey dokey Omi."  Who says that?  What a kid!!

Today was errand day.  The one I was dreading most was BCAA.  I needed to renew my membership, check to make sure my Tank insurance was good for an N driver and get travel medical insurance.  I expected to be in there for a good half hour or more.  Well, get this...my membership automatically renews, my health insurance doesn't run out til the end of April and my insurance covers N drivers.  I was out of there in five minutes!!!  That NEVER happens to me!!!

And I went to the bank to get American money.  I need one dollar bills for tips on drinks.  So...five drinks per day, one dollar per drink, five days of drinking...twenty five one dollar bills was needed. And I needed six fives for the chambermaid.  And five fives for dinner tips.  And the bank had exactly what I needed!

  The only downside to the trip into the bank was standing in line for about ten minutes, right behind a very dysfunctional sketchy guy who reeked so strongly of pot that my clothes smelled like pot for an hour after I got out of there.  If he had stood still it wouldn't have been so bad, but he was atweeking bad.  Foot to foot, spinning around, hacking and coughing...and smelly!  At one point he swung around and glared at me and quite aggressively said, "What are you looking at?"  And I very calmly answered, "Your awesome hat! I love it!"  Hahaha!!  He actually calmed down and said, "Oh"

Well I gotta bounce...TTYL

MY AWESOME SISTER AND STIRLING

HAPPY BOY

HAPPY MOMMY

BEAUTIFUL CUPCAKES MY SISTER MADE

IS THIS NOT AMAZING?!

MMMM....SHOWER FOOD...ONLY TOPPED BY FUNERAL FOOD

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BABY EVER

I LOVE KAMLOOPS,  GRAEME STOPPED TANK FOR ME TO TAKE PICS

A KAMLOOPS CASTLE

   

LOSING MY MONTE MAN TODAY

A couple of days ago I noticed that over the past month Monte has really calmed down and had less and less episodes of any sort.  In fact he is kind of back to what he used to be years ago, before his break.  So I mentioned this to him and guess what he told me?  About four weeks ago he ran out of his pills.  So he has not been on any medication for the last month!  And he is so much better.  Now, that probably is going to be up and down but for now he is so much better off than he was.  I have been reading about the drugs he has been on over the last five years and there is no doubt that if he can go with out them, he would be so much better off.  Especially in the long run.  The side effects are evil.

He is heading back to Port today.  We have had a really good few weeks and I am going to really miss him.  He is still hobbling around on one crutch so his awesome friend Graeme, our life saver, came up and helped him load his van up yesterday.  Bit by bit the house is emptying out.

I did a bunch of cooking yesterday.  I am heading down to Kathy's later today.  Marilyn (my brother's ex wife) and Jeni's (niece from Calgary)husband Jeremy and their two awesome little boys are converging at Kathy's.  Marilyn is taking the boys to Victoria with her for spring break.  So I shall be going down to Kathy's to see them too.  And I don't like to go without food so I made a massive batch of subjit and a massive batch of mac and cheese.  I also have a huge tray of pork shoulder steaks so I think I shall cut them up small and bbq them.  I will take them and if we don't need them I will bring them back and freeze them.  I love cooking.  And when several of Monte's friends come by they could eat to their heart's content.

I am worried about Alice.  She arrived early this morning because her doctor called.  Apparently, due to excessive coughing and pain in her chest she was under the impression she had pneumonia or bronchitis. So she had X-rays.  And they called her to come in immediately.  Okay, this is a woman who smokes two packs a day and has done so for so many years she can't count them.  So upon discussing her upcoming appointment I kind of delicately broached the subject of why the doc would be calling.  And she listed off all the possibilities of what it could be and what the doctor would want to do....like inhalers etc.  She has been hacking and coughing bad for about two months now.  And through all that not once did she mention smoking or possibly lung cancer being the reason.  I will be scared for her.  I sure hope she will be okay.

Well gotta bounce...tons to do.  TTYL

GRAEME LIGHTING HIS OWN BIRTHDAY CANDLE (ITS ACTUALLY A CRAYON, WE DIDN'T HAVE CANDLES)

THE MAC N CHEESE I AM TAKING TO KATHY'S, ITS COVERED WITH THE MOST DELICIOUS THING YOU CAN COVER A CASSEROLE WITH....RITZ CRACKERS CRUMBLED UP AND DOUSED IN MELTED BUTTER

MY GO TO CURRY

STIRLING

IT'S AMAZING HOW TIME PASSES SO QUICKLY!!

I try really hard to post at least every three days and then time gets the best of me.  And due to my advanced age and the possibility of encroaching dementia, I don't remember stuff that I was going to write about!

I remember one thing that shocked the absolute hell out of me this week.  I was giving Anton a giant lecture yesterday about youngun's letting their phones die.  What is with that anyway?  Out of all the adults I know I have never ever heard even one of them say their phone was dead.  Its all about time management and maturity.  I swear.

And I have yet to meet a younger one that hasn't said their phone was dead.  What the hell is their problem anyway?

So yesterday I was taking Anton with me to Costco to shop and then dropping him off at school.  Later Monte would pick him up.  So, as usual Anton's phone was dead so I suggested he make a call from the public phone just outside the school door.  I told him I would give him a quarter if he didn't have change.  And guess what he told me?  A phone call is now FOUR DOLLARS!!!!  Four freaking dollars!!!!!!!!!!  I could not believe it!  How the hell could a 25 cent call jump to four dollars?  Thats insane! Bastards!!!

I have been home all week.  I picked up a puke bug a week ago and seriously, if it weren't for gravol I would have jumped off my balcony by now, not that that would have done much, other than a couple broken ankles.  I hate nausea.  I lose my will to live pretty rapidly.  Today seems a bit better.

Kathy and Kerry went to Vancouver a few days ago and I have been the lucky recipient of one pretty little dog.  Emma is such a sweet well behaved dog.  She sleeps on a duvet practically under my head at night.  And during the day she sleeps where ever I am.  She 'dogs' my footsteps.  If I am in the kitchen chair she sleeps right by my chair on a little rug.  If I go to the laundry room she lays on the top stair right by the door.  And if I go to the loo in my purple room, she lays right at the door until I come out.  I think she misses her mom and dad, more than she actually wants to be with me.  We have really enjoyed having her here. All the kids really love her too.  She gets tons of attention.

Well I have a daunting task in front of me.  This afternoon I am hauling out all my summer clothes.  I am heading off to Mexico in two weeks and I have gained enough weight that last summer's clothes will def not fit.  So I have to try shit on and make decisions.  Sigh  (Humungous bigly shovel list)  Plus I don't want to take very much with me so I have to decide which bag etc blah blah blah.  But I will feel better once I get it done.

I am really looking forward to laying around, suntanning, floating on the man made river in an inner tube, swimming in the ocean.  I won't be able to snorkel.  I cannot see a thing without my glasses so there isn't much point.  Plus I have a zillion books on my phone so I am going to read read read!  I sincerely hope no one will think I am shunning them!  I also need now to make a comprehensive list of to do's and stuff to pack.

Well a pop up keeps popping up here.  Its been popping up for about a month now.  I keep hitting later...because it involves updates and computer restart etc...  I think I shall go do it now.  TTYL

MYSTERY ODOUR

I was up and down all night...puking and ....  well you know.  I feel right crappy at the moment.  But as I beat a path between chair and john all night, it came to my attention that there was an odour permeating the room...that had nothing to do with me.  As the night progressed it got worse,or at least I became a lot more aware of it.

So this morning I pushed my nose around the room, into corners, under furniture, everywhere, sniffing.  As I got closer to my messy knee deep closet I realized that smell was definitely coming from there.

In I went, sniffing and sniffing and became one hundred per cent positive  that it was coming from closet.  What the hell could it be.  On the floor are many many things, including a whopping pile of odd stuff laundry I need to get to.  I lifted up the first of it to see if there was something dead under there and OH MY GOD!!!  Everything, and I mean everything in that closet on the floor is soaking wet.  With toilet water.  The rug.  The laundry.  My shoes and boots.  My briefcase and backpack.  An enormous duvet etc etc....  Oh Mommy!  Whimper whimper!  (double triple shovel list)  So I hauled it all out and I shall have stick a heater in there and wash all that crap.

Not only that it frigging snowed again last night.  That enormous huge driveway needs ploughing again.  Maybe it will melt.  No. It won't.   Sigh.  So guess what I am doing?  Sitting in my chair feeling royally sorry for myself.  It would help if my stupid stomach would settle down.  I was supposed to go to a fun seminar with Kathy and Kerry today so I only took really mild gravol but I am staying home.  I think I will take the grand daddy gravol and pull a Scarlett O'Hara...I will worry about all this tomorrow.  I am sure I will feel better tomorrow.  I had better...I am supposed to babysit Ainsley and Stirling...really looking forward to it.  TTYL

TOILETS...GOTTA LUV 'EM

A few posts back, I threatened to quit writing because 'my life was so mundane'.  The Gods must have been listening because life has kind of exploded since then.  Mostly in a good way, but sometimes not so great.

Yesterday Anton and Graeme were here.  Kerry dropped in to pick up Emma.  In other words the house was pretty full.  Somewhere in there Levi came over for a few hours.  I love that.

But after Kerry, and Graeme and Anton left, Monte headed into the main bathroom and let out a holler.  There was water, and I mean serious water all over the floor and the toilet was right full.  The only reason it didn't run down the hallway to the rest of the house is because there is a pretty high lip of a threshold strip in the doorway.

And then, when I tried plunging the damn toilet something broke.  The water didn't drain at all but it started to pump out, fast, from under the toilet at the floor.  As fast as possible I shut the water off behind the toilet.  OMG!!!  The water!!!  And it soaked through to the basement of course.  My poor ceiling isn't actually bulging but boy is it ever stained...hugely.  I am going to have to solicit Arnie's and Bradly's sage advice on what paint to use to cover that mess up.

I put in an emergency call to Myles (he's a plumber).  He gave me a pretty good idea of whats wrong, how it got there and who to call.  Thank goodness!  So Roto Rooter is about to ring my door bell.  And we shan't be buying Charmin anymore.  Apparently charmin plugs toilets.  Sigh.  I will have to buy the thin stuff from now on.  (shovel list)

Well I went to the movie "Elle" with Anton.  It sucked.  I only gave it a four.  I am not necessarily a prude but I don't like movies about rape, sadism and old women chasing young guys.  Not my thing.  What was interesting is that the movie was in French with English subtitles.  And I was amazed by how much I actually didn't have to read the subtitles...I understood so much of the French.  And seriously mostly my French is from the back of vegetable cans.  Hmmm...maybe that was part of why the movie was so bad.

I was supposed to go to another film fest movie I, Daniel somethingorother yesterday with Anton but I got awful twisty stomach cramps and had to stay home.  That movie got a fifteen....yes FIFTEEN!!!! minute standing ovation at the Cannes Festival.  I wanted to see a movie that would elicit that!!!  But, alas I just didn't feel well at all.  Today is somewhat better.  

Haha!  I got a phone call about an hour ago from Rotorooter.  The dispatch lady told me that they would be at my door shortly.  So I tore around and picked up a few things and made a fresh pot of coffee to cover the smell of garbage in my kitchen...which I can't seem to track down.  But... rr (abbreviated for easyness) didn't show up. 

 And a couple minutes ago another phone call, from Roy from rr.  He was asking me where 870 Regent Cr. was, he couldn't find it.  Well thats the correct address I responded.  And then he said well I put that into the GPS and added Cobble Hill for good measure and it was just coming up blank.  Cobble Hill???  What???  I laughed and said well I am in Kamloops!  So he was going to let dispatch know and give them a good tongue lashing!  So now I am waiting for another phone call!  Oh and my kitchen smells like eau d' garbage again.  Sigh.

Well right now at this moment I am totally enjoying Monte.  He has come out of his room, sitting in my other comfy chair here in the kitchen and is playing his old music, the stuff he first did five years ago in Port Alberni.  Its so awesome, in some ways I almost prefer it to his more advanced and incredible stuff he does now.  Its a sure walk down memory lane which we both are enjoying immensely.  Gotta bounce!  TTYL

MONTE'S FRIENDS

Monte has amazing friends.  I think I have said this before but seriously I can't believe how helpful, interesting and funny they are.

The sole reason, at least in my book, for Monte even coming up here from Vancouver instead of going back to Port, was to clean out his room.  It was an utter mess.  And he has completely disallowed me to enter that room.  Of course then he falls and ratches up his leg, leaving him somewhat incapacitated.  Peter, bless his heart, was going to drive Monte back to the Island in Monte's van totally stepped up to the plate on Monte's behalf...and Graeme too.

So the other morning Peter and Graeme show up and got a chair for Monte to sit on and they went to town and over the whole day, cleaned his room for him.  Who does that?  And he isn't the easiest person to be around for hours and hours.  I have no words to express how impressed I was with those guys.  And Peter was unendingly patient.  He is a saint in my book.  And through all this he still took time to sit down with me and visit.  I wish he lived here in town!

Yesterday he went with Monte to Monte's storage unit.  He needed to get what he needs to live in a bare apartment.  So Peter helped Monte find pots and pans and various necessaries and pack it into his van.  Monte is somewhat still needing an external brain to help him process activities.

  

  Unfortunately the snow in the Coq is so bad that the road has been closed off and on and its still in awful shape.  The boys can't drive it but Peter has to get back.  We feel really bad about that.  From what I heard he is getting a bus back today.  I hope for his sake the bus gets through!

On Friday I met a bunch of lovely ladies (all about my age) with Kathy at the Noble Pig.  We had a delicious dinner and a round table get to know you session.  It was awesome.  We then went to the theatre and attended the opening night movie of the Kamloops Film Festival.  It was a beautiful movie about Northern BC.  I was very impressed with it.

Today I am meeting Anton at the Noble Pig for lunch and then we are attending a movie at three.  I kind of like this film fest thing.  The movies are good and only ten bucks.  You can't beat that!  We are going to another one tomorrow.

Well its getting near time to head downtown.  Best go get duded up.  (shovel list)  TTYL

I TOTALLY BLAME MYSELF

Well so much for a mundane life.  I went to the Kiwanis meeting today as per usual on a Tuesday. It was actually a kind of fun meeting today.  It is such an awesome bunch of people and we seem to be heading into our busy time...lots of projects on the go over the next few months.

  Right in the middle of the meeting my phone flashed.  Upon checking  it was from Graeme...Monte's friend.  Monte and he had driven up to Sun Peaks as Graeme had an interview at one of the hotels.  I was worried enough to wonder why Graeme would be calling. So I slipped out of the meeting and answered the phone and I almost wished I hadn't.

Poor Graeme. Things just happen to Monte, catastrophic things, and poor Graeme just seems to be there to help save the day.  Monte had fallen.  And they didn't know if his leg was broken, or his knee displaced or just what.  He was laying in the snow incapacitated, and they were waiting for the ski patrol dudes to show up.  They loaded him onto a sleigh and pulled him by snowmobile, sirens and lights going, to the clinic.  Eventually he was ambulanced down to the hospital in Kamloops.

After xrays etc....the long and the short of it is he has wratched his knee, torn ligaments blah blah blah.  At least no breaks but this looks like at least a month long ordeal.  Its all bound up and they have his leg splinted.  They had to get him extra tall crutches.  Hahaha...the crutches are taller than me!  AND THEY CUT HIS JEANS OFF!!!  Clearly they have no idea how hard it is to find 46 by 46 jeans!

So now he has taken over my kitchen recliner.  I am in my purple room and Graeme and Peter are out there with him.  Monte has a circle of truly amazing friends.  I could adopt any one of those boys in a New York second  (I think I just heard Spod rattle the lid on the bent box!)  I could start up a cheap housing place for three University students here but unfortunately we don't have a reasonable transit system...in fact for TRU students its awful.  It just wouldn't work.

I wrote that last night.  This morning I was up super early and off to a school for an assembly.  Kiwanis supports a reader program in this school and two of the Kiwanis members and myself (as the photographer) were in attendance to hand out awards to kids who read for fifteen minutes, one hundred times.  The kids were also receiving merit awards.  The whole thing was one giant feel good episode...all in French so I didn't understand much but the feeling was awesome.  A great way to start the day!

And now Monte has been fed and watered and tripped to the john and is busy laying in bed working on his whatever on his laptop.  I need to clean this house.  Alice will be here at eight thirty tomorrow morning and expects a clean house.  She is a really amazing housekeeper.  She always shows up and she is incredibly thorough...but a wee bit expensive.  Oh well.

The next couple of weeks are going to be busy ones.  Seminars, dances, dinners, film fest, etc...I am having to drop my hermit persona for a while! TTYL