The evils of Bejeweled

So, I apologize for not writing for a while. On top of the cold - still coughing by the way - I indulged in purchasing Bejeweled 2 from the Real Arcade site. In my time of weakness, specifically while procrastinating & feel stressed about everything, I downloaded a free trial of Bejeweled 2 & just couldn't stop myself. It's just so easy to purchase crap online. Especially since I tend to look up stuff I want such as Bejeweled or the Kung Fu Hussle DVD (still having purchased that though). When I go to a store & hum & haw about things, pricing stuff out, checking out sales. Physical shopping takes time, but online shopping can only take a few minutes. So, anyways, $19.99 US & I've been playing every day since. In order to continue functioning I have limited myself to an hour at a time (which usually becomes an hour & a half) and make sure that I don't play right up until bedtime. If I don't get some down time I have Bejeweled dreams. This is unpleasant. I've already had difficulty sleeping & don't need to be thinking about solving puzzles 24/7. I am weak & undisciplined. On top of that ball season is officially starting & after 2 practices my body is seriously hurting. I don't think it's bad hurting, just the kind of hurting when you excercize an extremely out of shape body. The good thing about Ball is that we seem to have a real solid team this year - new people & people that seem like they'll stick around. We'll see if they do but I'm looking forward to playing. I am a little nervous but definitely not in a bad way. I just want to do well, hope I don't strike out - often- and make it to first base once & a while. That would be a good season. Also, I would like us to win a game, and not by default.

Cough

Yeah, coughing stage is NOT okay. Yesterday was horrible. I went home from work early & got some meds on the way home. I bought cough syrup, lozenges, Advil, & Neo Citran. Thank God I had extra gift cards for Zellers or I would have had to charge up a fortune on my Zellers card. Anyways, I highly recommend Contac Cough & Sore Throat syrup & Cepacol Sore Throat lozenges. They are amazing. The cough syrup doesn't quite last as long as it says but it starts working right away. The Cepacol lozenges make your tongue numb, but that's fine by me since it numbs my poor aching throat as well.
I'm also not Volunteering tomorrow, officially. I e-mailed the Keeper so even if I feel okay I'm not going. I'm going to stay home, sleep in hopefully, & laze about all day. Ideally, I'll be healthy by Monday, but I don't have a whole lotta hope since the last cold I had lasted for weeks.

Update

Mom seems to be doing okay. She's still a little tired but seems to be a bit more like her lively self. A friend of hers moved the cable into her bedroom so she can relax in the comfort of her room. I think she's a bit frustrated by not being able to do her usual level of activity but I guess she's tired enough to stay in & at take it easy.
As for me, I can't breathe through my nose or smell anything today but that's significantly better than having a wicked sore throat. I can't stand the sore throat phase. I'm hoping to be into the coughing phase within a day but we shall see how that goes. I couldn't sleep last night, or at least not from 2:30-5:30 a.m. so I need to try & get a good sleep tonight or I could prolong my suffering needlessly. I'm really late with Mom's birthday gift, since it was Feb. 28. With her not being home at the time, my procrastination tendencies came out full force. My idea is to paint her a T-shirt (one for her & one for her guest) for when she goes to see Il Divo in April. It will say "Hot Buns" because that's what she says when someone mentions them, and that was the first time I ever heard her say anything about a guy's bum so I would like to pay tribute to that. With the whole stroke thing I was a little concerned she may end up not going to the concert but I think she'll appreciate the T-shirt either way. The kicker is that I still haven't painted them yet...just call me Lazy Buns.

What a day

Friday I went to see 300 - AMAZING movie, by the by - with Tracey & then we went for a walk. Then, Saturday morning, I went to the Zoo for 8:30 because we were going to a 'trade show' at the Tradex Centre in Abbotsford for the day. The picture is of me & Hagrid, a Great Horned Owl. I also got to hold Archer, a Peregrine Falcon. My arm is still sore. It was a great, though exhausting, day. But, when I got home I checked my messages & had 5 messages, 2 from my Mom, 2 from my cousins and 1 other, and then as soon as I finished checking those I got a call from Carol P. that my Mom had a minor stroke. Wow, and wow! That was the last thing I expected to happen. I hadn't spoken to my Mom yet because she was supposed to get back Friday from her trip so I hadn't had a chance to call yet. When I got off the phone with Carol I tried calling & calling & calling my Mom. And after trying every 2-3 min. for an hour of the phone being busy I called her neighbour & asked her to go & make sure she was okay. Turns out the phone just wasn't hung up properly. Apparently, all things considered, she's okay. It wasn't severe, though she is feeling week & has the 'palsy' or 'slackness' on one side of her face so pronunciation of certain words is difficult. But, I admit that I completely freaked out. I already lost one parent & can't even bear the idea of loosing my Mom. Because of her smoking I always thought she would likely get cancer. And, of course, there's just random chance that anything could happen.But, I never anticipated this. Being the adored person she is, she is well taken care of surrounded by her friends & family who have all been incredibly helpful. And, I feel completely helpless. My first instinct was to fly home. But, on top of my lack of money to do so there's not much I could do if I were there. It's all very frustrating. I don't know too much about strokes but as long as she doesn't have another one she should recover but it's still frightening. The icing on the cake was that my landlords were having a surprise party for their son-in-law so interspersed with phone calls & my sobbing was the sounds of dancing, music, & 'happy birthday' songs. It made me feel even more horrible.
Today, however, is a bit better. My arms are only a little sore & I spoke to my Mom briefly & she's okay. So, I guess I should be hopeful.

Stomping

My landlord's grand-kids are over. How can I tell? Variances in stomping & the occasional squeal. Bruce's stomps are STOMP-STOMP-STOMP. Julie's stomps are TAP-TAP-TAP (wearing heels & on the way to work). The kid's stomps are pitter-patter-pitter-patter-BANG-run-run-run-BANG-STOMP-pitter-patter-SQUEAL-BANG-NO!-run-run-run...It's kind of funny except if I already have a headache. That just sucks. Anyways, that's all I got for today.
Except that we had another pot-luck at work today in honour of St. Patty's Day & it was fantastic. I love pot-lucks! But, I volunteered to bring a meat & cheese platter and damn is that an expensive option. It cost me $20. I think I'll stick with the cookies or veggie platter next time.

Ode to Turnovers

Today is my volunteering day and since I have been out of bread for a week & a half (which really sucks by the by) I didn't eat breakfast or lunch so on my way home stopped to do some errands & treated myelf to raspberry turnovers at a local bakery I go to once in a while. So, as soon as I got back in Little Car I dug in & damn are those good turnovers. I went into my next stop with turnover crumbs all over my boobs & was only a little embarassed.

Lazy...

I've been quite lazy lately. It seems even more lazy than before because I had a couple of weeks of energy so I was actually quite active. But the last 5 days I just haven't had the umph needed so I've napped a bit, watched T.V. a lot, and generally felt lazy. I went out Saturday night and just barely made it past 12 midnight. Round 2 of Carcassonne on Sunday had me yawning up a storm. Yesterday I laid on the couch for 2 hours until Heroes was on, then I almost got peppy. Exciting episode actually, but I'll spare you the details. It was enough though to keep up for the Black Donnelly's (two 'n's and two 'l's?). Today was Pub Night with the co-workers, so 1 & 1/2 pints & a platter of Fish 'n Chips later and I'm totally pooped. I've tried sugar & coffee in varying degrees over the last few days but it's not making an impact. I don't know what to do. I'll stay up for Lost, & maybe Medium if I can make it tonight but I have 2 more whole days of work left & I hope I find some energy soon or I won't survive. Okay, perhaps that's exaggerating but I will certainly be zombie-ish. Not all grrr arrghh zombie but you know what I mean!

Sweet Victory!

Yesterday, my co-workers came over to play Carcassonne. And, either 3 is the magic number to play with or I just got lucky BUT I won - TWICE!!! My loosing streak is over! The first round I just got lake after lake & this was the key to success because that river system alone gave me 27 points. The second time I was able to finish the mountain/forest pieces at least 5 times so that really added up and gave me the usually elusive nugget pieces - these are special pieces worth more points. Granted they were new to the game but so was the Hendricks clan & they kicked my a$$ the first time. I thought that since I won 1 game that I would for sure loose the second but I didn't. This gives me hope. I'm ready for winning &, hopefully, can beat the Hendricks' too. My worry is that I'll still loose to them but I now know that if I get the right tiles I'm as good as they are so it's a very liberating mentality.

Bathing a tortoise

Hopefully, I'm spelling that right - I'll have to double check. But, in the meantime I got to bathe the tortoises yesterday at the Zoo. They're small enough to fit in a grocery basket so the Keeper brought them over 1 at a time to the sink & they sat in a basin, just large enough to fit them with warm water.My job was to scrub their shell with a toothbrush to get all the dead skin off (which tends to build up, particularly around the edges). The first guy REALLY likes bath time and so he had his head out and was just relaxing as I scrubbed. The second guy is the shy one so kept his head & tail tucked in the whole time. It was really amazing! It pays to clean up poop, etc. on a regular basis!

Do you like vegetables?

If so, try this:

Zucchini Supreme

• 1 large zucchini (~ 4 cups) sliced
• 1 medium sized onion, sliced
• 2 or 3 medium sized tomatoes, you guessed it - sliced!
• 1/4 c. (or less) of melted butter or margarine
• 1 green pepper, chopped or sliced
• sliced cheddar, enough to cover the veggies
• 3 c. croutons

Alternate layers of zucchini, onion, tomatoes & green pepper in baking dish (13 x 9 size). Season with salt & pepper if you want, but it's not necessary. Cover top of veggies with cheddar, sprinkle croutons over the top & then drizzle butter over it all. Bake, covered, for 45 min. at 350-375 degrees, then uncover and bake 5-10 min. more - but watch that the croutons don't burn (that keeps happening to me).
This is delicious!

8:00 and still at home

Another dump of snow and I can't drive to work. I was semi-optimistic that it would be fine on the roads since it's still fairly mild BUT with the fear that I would crash half way down the mountain. Ever since that accident back when Little Car was still a baby I have intense fear of icy slopes, particularly the one I drive down every day. However, today was my 3rd Year Anniversary as a Premier employee, and therefore a non-retail worker - yay!, so the 4 of us that were hired at the same time were going to go out to a new restaurant in the area for pasta. So, I got bundled up and trudged through the snow and started the process of clearing it off my car. A couple of people drove by, tires spinning a bit, but they were driving so even though it looked terribly icy I thought Little Car can do it too. Be positive! So 10 minutes later I put Little Car in drive and spun it's tires, slowly inching forward. But, then I started swerving a bit and got stuck. So, I went backwards and then put it in drive again, only to get stuck again. I took my foot off the gas & noticed I was going backwards - and just in case it's not clear, this was NOT deliberate, nor was I in reverse yet. This frightened me the most because if I can't make it up this little hill I may actually crash on the way down if I hit this kind of ice. After a few more futile attempts to get onto the other car's tracks I just backed up, on purpose, and parked Little Car. I called work & intend to try again in an hour or so. In theory, as the temperature rises it might get more melty & slushy so I could still make the pasta lunch. However, my tires really suck a$$ and I just don't have any confidence in them anymore. Despite my debt, I think I'm going to use my tax return money towards new tires. And if I can save up over the next 4 or 5 months I will also make the big leap & get winter tires. I've missed so much bloody work this winter being stuck at home & therefore used up alot of vacation days for no good reason that it's just prudent to invest in something that will prevent that from happening in the future. If I do pay the big bucks for winter tires and next winter is the mildest & sunniest winter ever here I will frickin' flip out, though.