We are out of oil AGAIN. It ran out sometime last night. It’s about 12 degrees Celsius in the house right now. A bit nippy! We’re going to start a fire and I’ve arranged an oil delivery for today.
It’s a bit scary how much we spend in oil to heat this house…perhaps some weatherproofing is in order.
Here’s what Greg and I did this weekend…
Friday night we went out for a very nice dinner with KaptainK and JJ. This was the first visit to the restaurant for Greg and I, and I wasn’t disappointed. My only regret was I should have had more of the yummy frites and skipped dessert. I’m definitely a savory sort of person.
Saturday morning we slept in, then headed out for some classic eggs benny for breakfast. It was yummy, but driving home I was feeling pretty full of rich food — a breakfast of fruit salad may have been smarter.
When we got home I got busy on shampooing the carpets upstairs…always an exercise in restraint as I stop myself from seeing just how many times I can go over the same spot until the steam cleaner stops sucking up brown, opaque water.
While I was doing the carpets, Greg got to work on cutting back the Escallonia outside our front door. In the past six years it has grown out of control, and this year we decided to hack it right back. Makes for quite a different view out the front door.
Escallonia Hacked
When I was done the carpets, I joined Greg outside and helped him take all the garden waste to the municipal yard. I also got some of the leaves raked, my pots cleaned up and put away for the winter, and cut back some of the dead plants in the garden.
After that, it was on to Thetis for a dog walk with a much appreciative Yoshi (with a stop at Starbucks beforehand), a stop at PetSmart for some more fish, and a quick lunch.
Once home with a tired pooch and a tired pregnant woman, I was off for a two-hour nap while Greg did some computing. When I woke up we had a gourmet dinner of hot dogs and parked ourselves in front of the TV for three hours. We’re totally hooked on the new version of Battlestar Gallactica.
Sunday morning we had another sleep-in, and after a breakfast of French toast, it was back to work. I tackled the basement while Greg did the garage. It was basically just a reorganization of the clutter, but at least the clutter’s out of the way now. It actually feels like I have a laundry room again. And thank goodness we have a garage. Where else would we store five bikes (keep in mind there are only TWO adults living in this house), three strollers and a wagon (keep in mind there is only ONE toddler living in this house) and a whole crapload of gardening, camping and sporting paraphernalia.
Basement Clutter Moved
Clear Path to Laundry
Garage – This IS an Improvement
After the basement/garage clean up, we headed out to Elk Lake for another dog walk (again with a pre-walk stop at Starbucks). Yoshi was in his element, leaping through the long grass in the fields.
We then did our weekly grocery shop (oh yeah, we also got a menu plan done in the morning) and came home. After lunch I headed off for another nap while Greg again did some computing.
Post nap I cleaned up the sunroom, made dinner (and finally had my first success in making beef gravy), brownies and granola.
Now it’s kitchen clean up time, followed by some more Battlestar Gallactica.
But the best part of all was I spent the whole weekend with my husband.
So…how does one get this done with a toddler? Well, Elliot spent the weekend with Gramma. He’s been gone since Friday morning and he’s not back until tomorrow afternoon. We are definitely missing him (a LOT), but at the same time it’s been nice to get some stuff done. And he’s having a good time with Gramma.
It’ll be a sweet reunion tomorrow afternoon.
A full freezer is a great thing — especially one that includes lots of berries for smoothies, homemade pear sauce, lots of meat, and frozen leftovers waiting to be reheated for easy dinners.
We had that full freezer. Until a few days ago. I went downstairs where our deep freeze lives and looked down to see the freezer door…open. I had put a couple of things in the night before, and must not have closed the door properly. About 75% of the contents were thawed. I was so mad at myself.
I did a little online research and decided to refreeze all the berries and the pear sauce, but I threw away most of the meat. I didn’t have the heart to calculate how much money was going down the drain.
The hardest thing, though, was throwing away some really yummy roasted tomato pasta sauce that I had just made with a bunch of tomatoes from a co-worker’s garden. We had frozen two containers worth, one that we were planning to give to friends who just had twins. But it had bacon in it, and I just didn’t want to take the risk of refreezing it, especially giving it to other people. It was still cold, and Greg and I could have eaten it within a couple of days, but I’ve had it twice this past week and I was ready for a bit of a break.
Sigh. And this is the THIRD TIME this has happened. Maybe we should get a chest-style freezer so that gravity forces the door closed!
It stinks in the house right now. Our deck was stained this morning, and the wind is blowing in the smell of the stain. A good portion of our ivy was cut down today, and it smells surprisingly bad, I suppose because it was very damp underneath the masses of green. And Elliot is having a nap and he pooped some time ago, while asleep. His door is partly open and every time I go upstairs I smell poop. Lovely. Oh, and there’s a pile of dirty dog laundry in the basement from camping. It stinks too.
I bought Kids’ Crest Cavity Protection Sparkle Fun toothpaste for Elliot when we started brushing his teeth. I was happy about it because I thought I’d finally found a toothpaste that was NOT some funky kid flavour that I’d have to wean him off of. The reason I thought that is because it basically looks like a tube of adult toothpaste.
Bad decision.
Remember how I said it looks like a tube of adult toothpaste? Well tonight was about the fiftieth time I’ve grabbed it instead of my own toothpaste. And remember how I said I thought it wasn’t some funky kid flavour? Well it’s bubblegum and it’s DISGUSTING.
To add insult to injury, the expiry date on the tube is November 2007, and there’s no way Elliot’s making it through the tube before November, what with the teensy weensy smear we’re putting on his toothbrush.
Next time I’m getting this stuff. There will be no mistaking whose toothpaste is whose.
…the dryer’s not on!
That’s right, I put the clothes out on the line today. So exciting! They probably won’t be dry by this evening as it’s a bit cool, but at least they’ll smell good.
I have about ten house plants. Not many, but enough. Well, too many actually. They are dependents I do not need or want. With the exception of three of them, they offer me little joy. For almost two years I’ve wanted to get rid of them, and I don’t know how.
Obvious Option #1: Throw them out. But I can’t do that…I feel too guilty! Not from an environmental perspective, as I’d just compost them, but from a guilt perspective. I just can’t throw out a living plant.
Obvious Option #2: Let them die and then throw them out. Perhaps that would be easier? Easier to get rid of something dead and ugly than something green and oxygen-providing. So I have gone on a watering strike a couple of times. But they end up looking so pathetic that I water them again. And within hours they are perky and green again. Stupid hearty plants.
The other problem with #1 and #2 is that throwing them away is a lot of work. More work than continuing to water them. I’d have to empty all the dirt, clean up all the pots, clean up the mess I’d make while doing all that. And a couple of them are quite large, which means I’d probably have to cut them up. I can’t even throw them away…how could I cut them up??
Obvious Option #3: Give them away. One friend has shown an interest, but that was months ago. Nothing has come of it. My cleaning lady is coming tomorrow so I’ll ask her if she wants any of them. I should make it an all or nothing deal. You want that one? Well you’re taking these six as well then.
There is another option, which I’m currently testing to see if it works. I’ve put two in our sunroom, which is very cold at this time of year. I don’t see them on a regular basis, so I won’t be reminded to water them. Hopefully they’ll die peacefully, and next time I notice them they’ll be unrecognizable and I’ll quietly throw them in the compost, guilt-free. Of course, one of the ones I put out there is currently flowering for only the second time in the eight years I’ve had it. As if to say “keep me, keep me!”. Stupid plant.
The only three I want to keep are a fig tree and two African violets. The fig tree was one of my first house plants ever. It almost died once, but I nursed it back to health. It deserves to live. One of the African violets was from a good friend’s wedding. It desperately needs to be repotted, but it’s hanging in there. And the other African violet is just a really healthy plant that flowers often, doesn’t take up a lot of room, is in a very pretty pot, and requires very little attention.
So, uh, does anyone want some plants?
Last night our furnace started emitting a high-pitched wail. We went down and checked it out, because we know so much about furnaces, and decided after gazing at it for a few seconds that it probably needed some servicing. Something else our landlord has to deal with.
We went to bed, and in the middle of the night I had to go turn the heat down, because every time it came on the wail woke me up. I envisioned our furnace exploding beneath us (over-active imagination at night).
This morning as I was lying in bed, I realized the heat wasn’t coming on at all, and it was chilly. Yup, we’re out of oil. Already. We just got $300 worth put in on November 30! That’s more than $150 a month, more than $5 A DAY. Scary. And we rarely have it about 66 degrees.
Maybe it’s time to close the damper on the fireplace and put some weatherstripping on our front door. Or maybe it’s time for me to go back to work so it’s not on all day. 🙂
My hands are freezing right now, but the oil just came, so I’ll go put the heat back on. And watch the dollars slip by.
I don’t mind doing housework. It’s not my favourite thing to do, but I get a certain amount of satisfaction from a clean kitchen, clean laundry, and a dog hair-free floor (okay, the last thing has never happened, but we can always hope).
But there are a few chores that drive me nuts, especially doing them repeatedly and I wish there were some magic fairy who could do these chores for me.
There’d be the Ziploc Fairy, who would wash and dry all the Ziploc bags for me, so they wouldn’t first sit in a stack by the sink, and then forever hang off the fridge, drying.
There’d be the High Chair Fairy, who would wash Elliot’s high chair tray after every meal. Bonus points for washing his bib and the floor as well.
The Front Hall Fairy would sweep through the front foyer, pick up shoes, hang up jackets, open and sort the mail, recycle envelopes, and generally clean up the dumping ground of our house.
The Post Laundry Fairy would take our freshly cleaned and folded laundry and put it all away. Within five minutes of it being folded, not within five days.
The Diaper Genie Fairy would take Elliot’s diapers straight out to the garbage, right after each diaper change.
Ahhhh…sure would be nice.
Two nights ago Greg and I realized there was a large puddle on the kitchen floor. The source? A leak in the roof, likely from all the snow.
That same day I noticed a crack about a foot long in the window of Elliot’s bedroom. That crack now runs almost the entire height of the window.
Both items will be fixed soon, and while it’s a bit of an annoyance for us, thankfully Greg and I don’t have to pay for the repairs.
It’s times like these I’m happy we are renting.