30/365

Today was a PA day, and my kid could have spent the day with me but no...LOL...she wanted to go to service de garde! They were going sliding and since it had just snowed, she REALLLLY wanted to go. So I dropped her off and them went, as is my Friday tradition, to Emerge. The issue i'm dealing with still hadn't "ceased and desisted", so in I went, again. This time I ran into an old acquaintance...he was the Dr in Emerge who came in to see me! I had heard he became a Dr, but had no idea he was back in K-Town. So a little catch up chit chat, and while I can't be certain he pulled some strings, I actually got seen by the specialist resident. Also got out in time to pick up DD from Service de garde, so she's none the wiser as to how I spent my day, as the first time they took me in to the hospital, she was quite upset by it.

28/365

AACK! I almost lost HIS dog! Wicked snowstorm out righ now, and the dogs whined to go out. So I let them. Then sat down to the computer editing pics and well...ahem...they were out for about 10 minutes. When Magic barked to be let in, I ran to the door...and Chloe (AKA "the other woman") was nowhere to be found. Gasp! So I threw on my coat and set out into the drifts to find her. turns out she was 2 doors down, waiting to be let in there. Can't blame her, every house is cookie cutter in this place we call a neighbourhood. Damn straight I gave her a cookie when she came back in, can't let her go telling her Dad that she was lost!!!

27/365

Another Tuesday, another black-out. They shut off the power again at 3:30, I stayed at work until 6:00 as I had to make sure all kids got home, then have a bomb-dropping staff meeting, in the dark. It went well, best that it could i suppose. Got home to Superman laying on the couch I the dark, with his coat on as the temp was at 18 in the house. Out we went, where we all had

breakfast- for- dinner. Love these nights. Especially when it's a "kids eat free" night too.

26/365

OMG she actually ASKED for broccoli soup tonight and ATE maybe 1/2 of it. Naan bread is our new best friend, as she dips it into VEGETABLES and actually eats it. Miracles can happen.

25/365

This is how I spent Saturday night, assembling my latest Ikea addition. I've been wanting this piece of furniture for a while. eventually we'll get the flat-screen TV to sit on it, but for now we'll transfer over the big kahuna and get rid of the outdated black wall unit. I love how furniture looks in your home before all your junk goes onto it...if only it could stay that way!!!

24/365

I worked from home today. Not my ideal Saturday, but hey, CB is only available on weekends now and I have to learn payroll at some point. Here's how Curly spent the day, on the steps. Laziest cat ever...LOL...I often try to imagine what his voice would sound like if he could talk. Kind of a slow marge Simpson-like sound I think. Red eye replacement 101 attempted to fix his green eyes, to what end of success I don't know.

23/365

Spent the day here. Same issue, one week later. They were really good about it, as HDH was last week...I was in and out in 6 hours, which when you consider all of the tests and exams done, was good time. No diagnosis as of yet, it will be another month before I see the specialist, but for now more drugs to keep things under control. Last week, I was leery about the pill popping thing. This week, I'm just fed up and am willing to take anything to get my life back to normal, even if chemically regulated.

22/365

Fell asleep on the couch in front of the TV at 7:30 today. Not a good one, not at all.

21/365

More time in the car. I like stopping at this particular intersection, it's so historic, so "Kingston". I can see the old fire department and city hall, S&R. Each time I see it, I head Steve's voice in my head saying "Shit and Rubbish", and it makes me feel sorry for it. I love S& R, it's so general store-ish, so small town yet it has everything! Whenever I can, I head there rather than the ubiquitous Wal-Mart. All those cool funky hidden stairways and crannies in S&R just hold a certain charm compared to the fact that when you walk into the Kingston Wal Mart, it's identical to the stores in St-Eustache, Belleville, Scarborough...ad nauseum.

20/365

Another day spent mainly on my butt in the office and in the car! Here's a shot of us returning from skating, honestly I forgot to take a picture until today. We hit Subway after skating, as is our usual Tuesday night tradition, then went shopping for some new Archie comics. Debit card, natch. What's the deal with the Christmas decorations still being up at Staples though?

19/365

Uhm, let's see...I went to work, ran from one meeting to another then fell asleep early. Mondays are boring. No photo :(

18/365

So in all I took 381 pictures of speed skating this weekend, but this one stood out for me. No the form isn't perfect, the picture itself lacks a bit of composition, but I wanted to focus on the man in the blue and red suit. At 70 years old, he broke several Ontario long-track records this weekend, skating with men literally half his age and keeping up with them! He's a member of our club, but we don't know him well since he skates with the Masters in the early morning and we skate in the evening when the kids have ice. Really something to see, when it's -20 out and snowing, inspiration can come in many forms.

17/365

We got up at 5 am this morning to make it on time to an outdoor long-track skate meet in Ottawa. It was -23 when Jones first stepped onto the ice!!! A learning experience for sure, we weren't prepared for the extreme cold. After 5 hours of the competition, we checked into a hotel, then picked up Jones' half-sister R and her mom to go...what else...SKATING on the Rideau Canal. It was R's first Beaver Tail, she enjoyed it, after much grumping in the baby sleigh while she was dragged down the canal behind us!

16/365

Since Timmie's is across the street from work/school, I get a daily request to stop there, or at *least* drive-thru. Most of the time I have to say no, but since it was a Friday and she asked politely we went in. Plain bagel toasted with butter is the current order. Large coffee, two cream one sugar to go for the man at home.

15/365

So that's a shot of the inside of my eyelids. Since after work all I did was close my eyes and wish away my brutal headache. Not the best day ever, I feel my health continue to slide down the tubes. On the plus side, I am eating a lot healthier. Maybe it's protein withdrawal...I am trying to eat more vegetarian, coming from a straight-up carnivore diet, it's a bit of a shock to the system.

14/365

During the power outage last night, the health issue I've been dealing for the past 6 months came to a breaking point and we decided it was best if I went to the hospital for urgent care. I'm on drugs today that are supposed to help things along, until I make it to the specialist appointment I have scheduled for February 23. So I'm home from work, cut off my hospital tag and just trying to take it easy for a day. I've never taken drugs for anything but a headache or maybe penicillin when I was a kid, so this whole idea of me taking a couple of pills and it fixing everything for the time being...it's creeping me out a bit.

13/365

This afternoon, Kingston got hammered by a winter storm. Okay, so it wasn't that big of a storm. The ensuing power outage right before rush hour however...*that* was chaos! It took people forever to get home, roads were slick, traffic lights were out. Jones did her homework by candlelight tonight, creating her own animal and writing about it's characteristics.

2009! Another shot at 365

So I haven't blogged in forever. And now the latest craze in the SBing world is to do the photo-a-day thing, CK/Becky Higgins has now come up with a nice pre-packaged kit to make it all easier, yadda yadda. 365 is mainstream.

Since I'm no longer "in the know" on SBing, the least I can do is mainstream eh? So here's my attempt. And of course, since I'm out of the loop, I only learned about this whole new trend a week into the new year. So my first week has holes in it. We can deal with it.

At the very least I will have my random musings to use in my journalling, since I've been on a scrap hiatus for what seems like eons.

12/365

Like I said, I didn't know about the 365 thing until January 11th...so the 5/365 -11/365...a week of nuthin' (okay wait, i found pics from Jan 9 and 10) Tonight I went to TOPS (see photo for 1/365 and you'll understand what TOPS is without following the link...lol) I've been with this group since about June 2008. Each week there's a prize of donated items brought in and won by the "Slenderette", the person who lost the most weight. This week, ***I*** was the Slenderette! Only the second time I've ever managed it. So there's my stash. And the watercolour in the frame behind it? That was done by one of the TOPS members. I pulled that puppy out of the gift-draw basket when my "magic number" of 2.75 lbs lost came up in the draw. It was my lucky night tonight! Hopefully sets the tone for the rest of the year.

10/365

Today was a seriously laze around the house day. Because Jones' room is overflowing with books, toys, etc once again post-holiday-season, I asked her to go through just ONE shelf on the bookshelf tonight with me and pull out some books to give away. Here they are, under the bed, waiting for a new home. We'll likely try to sell them in the Thrift Sale on base this spring.

9/365

Friday...ahhh. We've had this box of semi-permanent hair dye waiting to be used on Jones' head for over a month now. She wants *red* hair. So we did it tonight. It uhm...doesn't really show that much....LOL. In the sun, yes, but inside, no. Baby's first dye job!

4/365

Jones on day 2 of the O-Cup. What did she get out of this meet? Well, she came in last, every single race except the last one. But this is the picture I treasure...she made friends this weekend. The other skating parents have told me about this...that they make friends with their competitors and they look forward to seeing them at the meets. So here we have the Bantam Girls pre-race social session (without their DSes, that's for between races)...Jones from Kingston, number 372, along with skaters from Waterloo, Sudbury, Belleville and Gloucester. Her new friends :)

3/365

Spent the day at the arena. My friend Jane is the mom of the kid in 4th position there. She takes *amazing* sports photos and has a Nikon with a huge lens. My Rebel gets outperformed., full blown. Since Jane had to stay home for this meet (as she is now a grandma and was helping with the new addition to her family) I did my best to get a few shots off for her. What amazes me about the big kids skating is the fact that they skate so *close* considering they are also going so *fast* they have to touch the ice to keep themselves from tipping over. And when the zamboni has just done the rink, you get the awesome reflection of them in the ice.

2/365

Cheater pic...this is from 3/365, but it's the team at the cottage. Jones is one of 5 Kingston skaters at the Ontario Cup meet this weekend in Waterloo; the others are teenagers. Jones brought a few of her games with her, but didn't think the teenagers would want to play with them. She thought wrong. Magnetix and Rush Hour proved very popular! Our cottage was located on the outskirts of Cambridge, great idea for a rental. Certainly beat the hotel.

1/365

So uhm, yeah...these are the types of pics I took on Day 1, without knowing I'd be doing the 365 challenge. They're my "before" pics obviously. Too much work and not enough "me" time in 2008 has left me starting 2009 at the heaviest I have been in my *lifetime*. That coupled with some sort of weird hormonal imbalance I have going on...means BIG TIME focus on cleaning out this body and putting it back on track this year.