I listened to the new Green Day album American Idiot 4 times today in the car as I drove to Bellingham and back - and sat in border lines. I have to say that it is an amazing - nay, I will unabashedly say brilliant - album (you should all buy it!) and that I'm a little bit in love with Billie Joe Armstrong.

Mum and I went tonight to the Chan centre at UBC to see a choir performance of a huge Berlioz mass. It was really cool. There were 3 different choirs added together with an orchestra. The horn sections of the orchestra were spread out through the theatre in the upper levels and during a bombastic section of the performance there were horns blasting in every direction. It was pretty awesome.

Speaking of awesome, the theatre itself was one of the most beautiful I've been in. Elegantly shaped with wood and chrome accents and a soaring ceiling. Colour me impressed.

The mountains had disappeared for a few days into The Grey (you might have to be a Vancouverite to truly understand) but have returned with a beautiful dusting of snow. Ooooh! They look so pretty and it makes me very happy to look out my window at work and see them like that. It makes me wish I skied. Well, not actually, but they're still pretty.

I put up my Christmas tree and it looks pretty too. I decided not to put up the ornaments that I hate and normally hide at the back of the tree, though. Instead, I am going to donate them to the Sally Ann or something so that maybe they can be appreciated on someone else's tree, even though they're kind of fugly. That's one of the cool things about this world, though. One woman's fugly is another's Christmas tree treasure.

I have been on a cleaning and purging kick at the moment. I cleaned the closet in our bedroom and got rid of 3 big bags of stuff and have since taken a huge bag of books to the second hand store for trade (yay! more books!). It would be so nice to have a significant decrease in clutter by the time we have people over for festive festivities PLUS I'm seriously sick of looking at it all myself. Down with clutter!

It turns out that the injury to my meniscus was a false alarm and I actually only have some degeneration of the cartilage due to a fairly common muscular imbalance causing mis-alignment of my kneecap. An MRI (paid for privately to avoid the 5-month waiting list - horray for 2-tiered medical) showed the damage, which is somewhat fixable through rehab exercises rather than surgery. I can't repair the cartilage as such, since once it's gone it's gone for good, but I can at least halt it from progressing further and make my kneecap track properly in its groove. Yay!

I'm thrilled that I won't have to have my knee cut up but in a way I'm sad because it means I'm going to have to do the work myself to get it better. Stupid work! My symptoms are still much closer to that of a torn meniscus - pain location, functional problems - but everyone knows that machines don't lie.

Or do they..?

I saw the gyno today and it looks like I'm going to get three surgeries for the price of one (free, 'cuz I live in Canada) to deal with my polyps and (hopefully) my cramps. I'm going to get a laparoscopy, a hysteroscopy and a D&C all at the same time, since they've got to put me under a general anaesthetic to do any of them individually. The whole general anaesthetic thing is kind of freaky, mostly because the last time I had one, I puked for 2 days following the operation for my wisdom teeth. I wasn't worried about my tooth pain at all but I sure wasn't having a good time with the vomiting.

Let's hope all this can happen soon and go well so I can move forward and get back on track with my health.

I watched a bird hierarchy in action from my work window the other day. There was a loaf of bread on the roof of the autobody shop that I look over and a bunch of pigeons were pecking away at it. Next thing a crow shows up and starts menacing the pigeons, who back off but keep trying to get little pecks in without getting too close to the crow. Next thing a seagull arrives forcing the crow to back off but at this point the pigeons get a little bolder and peck on the other side of the loaf from the seagull. The seagull was trying to drag the enormous loaf away but had to make do with dragging it across the roof. The crow kept menacing the pigeons but wouldn't get anywhere near the loaf until the seagull was gone. The pigeons out-waited them all and ate their fill quite happily.

It turns out I've got polyps in my uterus. That could definitely explain some of the issues I've been having regarding menstruation. I had a pelvic ultrasound yesterday - both externally and - jinkies! - internally. I was somewhat traumatized that during the internal ultrasound (as if it isn't traumatic enough as it is), the ultrasound gal (tech?) decided she wanted to bring a colleage in to have a poke around as well. I felt like at least one of them should have bought me dinner first.

Anyway, I'm seeing the gyno on Friday - apparently it's National Poke Around in Kate's Bits Week - and will find out more from there. From the info I've looked at online today, it looks like surgery is in my future for this, too. For a gal that works to be as healthy as I do, needing to have two different parts of me operated on isn't what I expected. I think I need a new lifestyle involving the couch, soap operas and bon-bons.

I've got a torn medial meniscus in my right knee and boy does it suck! I'd been ignoring the general knee pain I was experiencing due to activity for the past couple years (except for when I was running at the park and it couldn't be ignored). Recently, it flared up again when Theovis and I returned to our exercise program. I couldn't ignore it anymore so I got an x-ray (normal) and a bunch of functional tests at the doctor and the physio. Meniscus, dammit! And I know what the signs and symptoms of a tear are too, but just didn't figure it would happen to me.

Anyway, I'm waiting to get an MRI and an appointment with an Orthopaedic Surgeon to find out what my options are. Bad news, most likely surgery. Good news, surgery is relatively minor and quick to heal up from.

So, because I'm used to eating for an active person, I've started the South Beach Diet to get my eating habits under control for someone doing almost no exercise (on Physio's orders). It was my first day today and it wasn't bad. I was off work, though, and had time to do the required cooking. I'm not as confident as to how easily tomorrow is going to come off while I'm working. I can make it happen, though. If I could do that Body for Life exercise 6 days a week for years, I can do this.

As of yesterday, it's been 4 years since my dad died. Yesterday was a really tough day, which was weird, because I'm generally so calm about it all. But I felt so close to being fully unraveled yesterday and ended up cancelling my last 2 appointments so that I could go home early. Theovis, Mum and I had dinner together (takeout from Toko, our fave Chinese), drank a little champagne and enjoyed eachother's company. We didn't talk much about Dad - it's always hard to know even how to start talking about him - but we were all thinking about him. Both Theovis and I were just burnt out physically and emotionally so we ended up having an early night. Once in bed, we both got really choked-up and had a good talk and cry about my dad. It was good to acknowledge the pain that I don't even realize is always there.

We miss you, Da!

Theo and I spent a really romantic night at the Pacific Pallisades hotel for our Anniversary - 8 years since we got married. We got one of their romance packages and it may have even been worth the price. We were up on the 20th floor, with a gorgeous view of the North Shore from one set of windows and English Bay from another set. The king-sized bed seems so crazy huge compared to our double, and I'm sure we only slept in the same amount of space we normally do at home. Not having kitties hogging the bed gave us more room too. We ate breakfast in bed the next morning, which was fabulously decadent, although I was worried about getting waffle toppings on the sheets. At some point in my life, I'll learn to relax.

The days are getting shorter and shorter. This makes me rather sad. I love the autumn because of all the crunching leaves and crisp weather. I don't love the short days and the rainy leaf-smush that people too lazy to clean up their leaves rake into the street making it slippery and dangerous for everyone, especially cyclists.

On a plus side, there is a bunch of new snow on the Lions and they look incredibly beautiful from our front deck and through my window at work.

I won tickets through CFOX to the Beastie Boys concert a couple weeks ago. It was super-awesome! I never win tickets to things so I wasn't that excited when I heard you could win tickets by decorating yourself or your car with a "Fox Rocks" theme. I was sitting and home and considered dressing up like a schoolgirl with "Fox Rocks" written across my bosom. I quickly decided I didn't want to show my bosom to strangers and thought about writing it on my hair ribbons etc. but decided it wouldn't get me the tickets because there'd probably be so many others participating. Then I decided what the hell and did it anyway. It was fun and it won me the tickets, and I didn't have to flash anyone. What more can you ask?

Finally our evil, noisy neighbours are moving! Huzzah! I say it again, huzzah!

You'd have thought that a Vietnamese family with 2 young-ish kids would have been great neighbours noise-wise. I'd have preferred drunken college kids! The kids in the family - maybe 10 at the oldest - were almost always still up and SCREAMING at 11:30 on a Thursday night. Sometimes they were playing their recorders instead. Go. To. Bed.

The adults weren't much better. No one seemed to talk in the house. It was all about the yelling, especially as the weather got hotter and everyone's windows were opened wide. Then this summer while it was crazy hot, the dad had his buddies out in the back yard every night, drinking beer and hollering at one another. I was woken up on more than one occasion around 12:30am with one of them out in the yard on the phone! He probably went outside so as not to wake his family - but who cares about the neighbours, right? Grr!

Anyway, they were trying to sell the house last summer, with no luck, and didn't have any signs up this summer even though we saw some realtors and clients going through the house and yard. I had lost hope that we were going to be rid of them but apparently they're leaving at the end of the month. Glory be!

Bring on the drunken college kids for some peace and quiet.

I was very worried yesterday morning when I turned on our computer because nothing happened. Well, there might have been some distressed beeping before it requested a boot disc because it wasn't recognising the hard drive. Eep! Restarting did nothing but bring me back to the same screen and when I tried turning the computer off, it stayed on, well, the fan did anyway. For those of you wondering, if you stick your finger too close to the computer fan while it's running, it'll cut you.

When I arrived home yesterday, Theovis was playing a game on the computer so I was thrilled to discover it was working again. I had spent a whole schwack of time the day before working on a webpage for a prospective client and was super nervous that all my work was lost. This morning as soon as I was able, I uploaded it all so I have a copy of my work somewhere. Once I kick the cat off my lap I will save it all to disc as well - the floppies are handily stored across the room from the computer. Brilliant, I know.

But hopefully all this will put a fire under my sweetie's butt and we'll have a new computer soon that enjoys actually turning on when it's supposed to.

I have been spending less and less time in front of the computer lately. Partly it's that I have been so busy at the clinic and am not home much to be in front of the computer and partly it's because our system has been acting so sketchy lately that I worry about putting much time into writing and coding information that could be obliterated when our system finally kicks it. Frequently when we try to turn on the computer it makes unhappy beeps or simply doesn't do anything. Theovis is looking into ordering us a new computer so I really hope something happens with that sooner rather than later.

We went down to the States on Saturday to go to a BBQ at Karen and Larry's. It was fun and we even talked to a bunch of people we didn't know and got our butts kicked at croquet by Karen's mom and step-dad. Before we went to their place in Deming, Theovis and I cruised around Bellingham finding their game and comic stores. He bought a bunch of Heroclix which seemed to make him very happy. We then went to the mall where he bought 2 pairs of his favourite Adidas runners (they were on sale). I bought a casual and a dressy winter jacket at Ross so I no longer have to put up with the feather bomb that is my former down jacket.

I have been totally slacking on a bunch of administrative stuff I need to do for work because I'm not really sure where to start with it *and* I simply don't want to. I am so much better at following directions than trying to be all self-directed but I got into a bunch of it today. I had planned to tackle it last week but then got blasted with menstruation followed by a cold. It meant I went to bed around 9:30 every night last week and read books instead of doing all the crap I meant to do. I much prefer reading books. I will never again let someone else play on my sense of responsibility guilt me into taking on tasks I don't want!

I got my hair re-straightened on Saturday morning. It took 3 1/2 hours (reading trashy magazines and one issue of Maclean's) and I've had to be super conscious of not tucking it behind my ears or getting it wet or anything until this afternoon when I could wash it and treat it normally again (hooray for the perma-bun). We went out on Saturday night and I felt like such a princess fussing with my hair all night. It was really hot at the bar and I was so worried about sweating too much and ruining the straightening process. It was pretty sad.

The good thing about going out on Saturday night was that we got to see Theovis' friend Jamie Perry play as Bocephus King with his Band of Doom. I'd seen Jamie play at an open mic night years ago, so I knew he was a talented singer but it was really cool to see him performing with a band in a club venue for the release party for his new CD All Children Believe in Heaven. He was on the cover of the Georgia Straight paper this week too. You should all go out and buy his album!

I've been bustling around getting ready to head off with Theo and Jeff to GenCon in Indianapolis. I'm not much of a gamer myself but I thought the trip would be fun and it will be cool to see a city I'd probably never get to otherwise. With my incredibly poor knowledge of US geography, I was convinced Indiana was in the mid west. I looked on a map and boy was I wrong. We've got a long way to go. The cats are unhappy because they can tell something bad is coming when the suitcases show up on the bed. Their Gramma spoils them rotten with tuna juice so I can't imagine they'll be too hard done by, though.

For any of you that were worried, I did eventually find them, without assistance from my contacts. Turns out they'd fallen into one of the storage boxes kept beneath the bed that was sticking out the side somewhat.

Does anyone know why I can't access Blogger in Mozilla anymore? If other people use Blogger for the commenting system on their blogs, I can't read them with Mozilla anymore either. Why has Blogger got it out for us Mozilla users? Did they sign some sort of proprietary contract with Microsoft or something, so we all have to use IE? Kimph!

I can't find my glasses this morning so I've been wandering around in a blurry world since I got up. I've been wearing my contacts more since it has been so warm (sweaty glasses on my nose aren't so nice) but it means I'm not keeping as close tabs on my spectacles as I should - keeping them in a consistent place might also help but that would take organization I don't have. I searched the place several times this morning, despite my lack of visual acuity. Theo helped (he can see) but didn't come up with them either. One of the reasons I buy coloured, plastic frames is that they're easier to see when I don't have them on - I had thin, metal ones that were impossible to track down at one point, never again. I keep hoping I'll just come across them as I go about my day, but I think I'm going to have to resort to putting in my contacts so I can see well enough to find my glasses. It's a pretty sad state of affairs.

I'm Australian! I got official confirmation and a lovely certificate officially giving me Australian citizenship. I think it's a nice combo with my Canadian (No sassy comments about how you always knew I was bi, Jeff). So if I get sick of this beautiful, clean, safe country with nationalized healthcare, I can just move to a different one - one with all that PLUS deadly snakes and spiders. Huzzah!

Theovis and I did rip apart the office last weekend and what a job it was. We're still in process of putting it back together but it looks great. The hardwood isn't in the best shape in this room but the new desk arrangement and bookshelves make it look like a much larger room. A decrease in the stacks of various crap will also help. We got rid of our old bookshelves by putting them out in the lane and they all disappeared. I don't know if other cities do this but it is an awesome way to get rid of stuff in Vancouver.

I'm heading up to Whistler this weekend for the Every Woman in the World conference. It should be a bunch of fun. Anyhoo, I'd better head out so I actually get some work done before the goofing off begins.

Hola, ustedes!  Theovis and I have been taking a Spanish class at Langara.  It's pretty fun, and we've been learning a lot but it is making my brain hurt sometimes.  Last night's class filled my head to overflowing and I found myself staring at her blankly when she asked me a question because although I knew how to answer her, I couldn't make it come out of my mouth.  I think she realized that I was just having an off moment and she stopped asking me too many questions after that.  I find myself translating from English to Spanish and vice versa often with French thrown in the middle.  I think knowing French is helping me overall but when I don't know how to say something in Spanish I catch myself throwing in French words.

I spent last weekend down in Bellingham (well, Deming, which is outside Bellingham), WA visiting my friends Karen and Larry.  It was a great weekend relaxing in the sun down by the river or in the hot tub under the stars.  Karen and I drank too many frozen Cosmo slushies and had a grand time giving tipsy advice to her 14-year old stepson about the kind of gal he should marry.  Larry and Ian made Larry's signature bbq'd salmon, which made me a very happy woman.

I spent much of Monday attempting to organize our home office, which has been the chaos room since we moved in.  It has too much clutter and completely inefficient furniture for what is required.  Unfortunately, every time I got started on one part of the project, I couldn't complete it until another part was taken care of.  But this weekend we are going to take our desk apart and change it around to more efficiently fit the space, plus we're going to get rid of a speaker cabinet that we have been hauling around from apartment to apartment to apartment to apartment to house for 10 years, with it being used exactly zero times.  Huzzah!  Of course, with the way my brain works I start thinking, "since we're ripping the room apart anyway, it's probably a good time to rip up the carpet to expose the hardwood floor."  Theovis went pale when I mentioned it but I might just do it while he's Heroclixing on Sat.

On a mission to catch up on the summer movies, we saw SpiderMan 2 on Wednesday night and Harry Potter 3 last night. Both were very well done. The guys I was with raved about Spiderman, and I really liked it, but I found the women screaming incessantly a little hard to take. It seems Sam Raimi was giving nods to his original Evil Dead movies but there's a limit to the amount of screaming women I enjoy in any one movie. I do love the Bruce Campbell sightings, though.

Harry Potter was a more interesting film than the last few have been because the director (Alfonso Cuarón) wasn't nearly as slavish to the books as the previous one (Chris Columbus) was. He did leave out a lot of the back story but there's only so much one can cram into any one movie, and I think he did a good job telling an interesting story in it's own right. I really enjoyed the director's previous film Y tu mamá también, but considering how racy that one was, he seemed like a strange choice for Harry Potter. I really liked what he did with it, though. Definitely better than the last 2 though staunch book lovers might be miffed by all he edited out.

I've continued my streak of efficiency this week thanks to the magic of endorphin-induced energy. And the really big news of the week is: I paid off my student loan! It took 8 years at a snail's pace but I realized recently that I had more money in my savings account than I owed on my loan so I popped over to the bank and paid it all off. Huzzah! It is a big relief to not have that debt hanging over my shoulder anymore. Since I got rid of all my consumer credit card debt a few years ago, all I need to worry about is 18 year's worth of mortgage payments. Sigh.

I get so much accomplished in a day if I work out in the morning. Case in point: this morning after our workout, I voted, got an oil change, took Stella through Aircare (she passed with no problem!) and scoped out insulation, reciprocating saws and roof vents at both Home Depot and Rona then arrived back home to greet the cleaners by 11. While the cleaners were here I called to cancel my membership in the Cooperative Auto Network AND called 3 places to arrange for estimates on our attic insulation upgrade. And it's only 1pm. Endorphins ROCK!

We tried to go see Farenheit 9/11 tonight but it was sold out. Stupid other people wanting to see the same movie! We went there at 6:30 and already the 6:50, 7:20 and 7:50 shows were sold out. The 9:50 was available but that's just too damn late to see a movie on a Sunday night when there's working out and working the next day. And voting - I can't forget about the voting. Speaking of that, I need to figure out where we have to go to vote tomorrow. And so do all of you Canadians out there! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

So, I didn't get to see any of the movies I really wanted to see this weekend but I did manage to see Chronicles of Riddick, even though it didn't look very good, just because a big group of friends were going. I'm still not sure why we weren't all going to see Harry Potter but one can't always explain a hive mind. I did get to have a super yummy dinner at Bo Kong beforehand, plus some Taro Bubble Tea after, so despite the films lack of any decent dialogue, the night was at least a social and gustatory success. The art direction, set (CGI?) design and costumes were pretty cool but the script was incredibly awful. And Karl Urban (Eomer from LOTR) had one of the worst mullets I've ever seen - and I know mullets, having grown up in small town BC in the 80's.

Curse this hot summer weather! It makes the cats shed like crazy and Sephie has been coughing up so many hairballs that her little kitty voice is quite hoarse. I think she's sick of the hairballs herself and is actually letting me brush her. It's madness!

Theovis and I just got back from our big road-trip vacation on Saturday and it was awesome! We had a really great time and drove approximately 3100km (~2000mi) in the 7 days we were away. We took a million pictures and as usual, I'll post them at a later date. I think I'll do the lazy version and just make photoshop galleries out of them rather than coding it all in, which is why it normally takes me forever to actually get photos posted.

We drove from Vancouver to Merritt, then to Golden, up through Jasper to the Columbia Icefields then back down to Banff. We drove through Calgary to Drumheller (Dinosaur Museum) then back to Calgary before heading down to Fort McLeod and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and through the Crowsnest pass to Fernie. From Fernie we drove to Osoyoos then through the Fraser Canyon and Fraser Valley then eventually back to Vancouver.

Once we were back home on Sunday, we lazed around for most of the day watching episodes of Firefly on DVD instead of putting our gear away and doing laundry. It was way too hot for doing much else. It was probably at least as hot today but I did get some of that stuff done as well as picking up some groceries, getting a massage treatment to help my aching back and going to ballet class.

I've been trying to get on here for nearly a week to do an update and it just wasn't happening so here's a hodgepodge of what I've been up to. I've just had too much stuff going on plus any free computer time I've had has been sucked up by Theo and I playing Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic together. By "playing together" I mean that he plays and I make the occasional comment about what path he should take and what kind of new powers he should get when he levels up. Mostly I keep getting mad because he doesn't do the "chuck your lightsabre" attack often enough because it looks really cool. He's all like, "it uses up too many force points that I need for healing," and I'm all like, "hello? It looks cool." We're geeks.

My birthday came and went on May 26. We had an awesome day. It started, well, it started the night before when my brother showed up to surprise me - and it was a huge surprise. I was in the bath and freaked right out when I heard his voice. We got to hang out that night then at breakfast at Sophie's Cosmic Cafe the next morning. He's still in town, I think, but I haven't seen or heard from him since. Typical. He wouldn't even come to the birthday party I had on the weekend because some other "super close" friend that he hasn't seen for 5 years was having a birthday party that same night and he'd already said he'd go. Well, as long as it was something important... *sigh*

Anyway, after breakfast, Theo and I drove to Whistler to do a Ziptrek tour. It was awesome - and terrifying. I started preparing all the images into a page to show all y'all but didn't get too far. I will let you all know when it's up. We had dinner at the Old Spagetti Factory in Whistler before heading home - there's something about ridiculous amounts of adrenalin that makes me crave carbs like nobody's business. I am always surprised at how close Whistler really is. I always think that it's 3 or 3 1/2 hours away but it simply isn't. We made it in under 2 each way and I don't even drive like that much of a maniac.

We hosted a birthday party for Jeff and I here last Saturday which was pretty fun except I woke up Saturday morning with a sore throat and no voice and felt like hell the entire day and night. It meant that I didn't get nearly enough running around done and ended up forgetting to get propane and we ran out during the rainy barbeque. George Whoreman, I mean, Foreman gril to the rescue. Theo baked Jeff and I each a cake, which was very nice. I think people had a good time but everyone cleared out pretty early because they could see what a wreck I was. :( I'm feeling much better now but am still a pretty impressive mucous machine.

To increase the quality of my spare time I keep wanting to watch less TV, especially since most of the shows are on hiatus for the summer, but then I got a bunch of episodes of Clone High from Toren and watched them obsessively until I finished them all. I wish they'd made another season or two becuase it sure was a hoot. Those crazy teenaged clones of historical figures!

Tamara and I popped by an art opening tonight for Chris Woods, who I don't know but is a friend of a friend. The art was really cool but the space was really crowded and I am so very terrible at schmoozing and small talk. Unless I'm in a totally comfortable environment I am such a tool when it comes to trying to have a conversation with people I don't know very well. It's even worse when I think the people are cool and would like to get to know them better. Tamara helped me out by talking more but I become so aware of what a social reject I am in those situations. Grr! I always envy the social butterfly who can flit in and be super-comfortable no matter where they are and who they're with. I would like to be that butterfly but I can't get out of my damn cocoon.

We're gonna go camping next month! I'm sooo excited! We're going to drive up to Golden (to see Theovis' dad and stepmom), hit Banff (BAMF!) and meander our way back to Vancouver. Since Theovis doesn't drive and I can only do about a max of 4 hours a day, we'll camp whenever I get too tired to continue and hopefully see a bunch of cool stuff. I think it has been about 8 years since we last went camping so it's gonna be pretty cool. Yay!

Mum and I took down this poor, diseased, ant & aphid riddled tree in our front yard on Monday. I had just been planning to trim off a bunch of dead branches but we soon realized that there wasn't much on the tree that wasn't dead. So we sawed off the big branches until we had only the long trunk of the tree left and I Paul Bunyan'd that sucker down. Taking a tree down with an axe is more work than I thought. It went easier once I realized I'd been swinging left-handed for quite a while and switched to right - vastly improved my aim. We'd thought of renting a chain saw to take care of it but the axe thing just seemed quicker. We chopped up the larger wood into pieces which we will let dry then burn in the fireplace this winter. Once we know we've killed off the root structure we'll haul the stump etc. off and replace it with a new, (hopefully) healthy tree.

Acupuncture is not the answer to my menstrual woes. Alas and alack! I don't know what to try next...

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last update. It seems that every time I sat down at the computer, I needed to be doing something else and had no time for writing. Alas...

I've actually been doing some webdesign again for a friend who is holding a women's conference this summer. You can check out the site at www.everywomanintheworld.com. It's been so long since I started a site from scratch so it was a pretty fun thing to do again. And really frustrating at times.

I refinished our kitchen cabinets over a (long) weekend with a lot of help from Mum. We sanded, scrubbed and painted our little hearts out. Plus I got to rent a kick-ass mitre saw rented from Revy, uh, Rona (I hate it when stores change their names) which I didn't end up using as much as I'd expected to because I realized my initial plan for the project was insanely ambitious and would have taken us forever. Since what we did seemed to take forever anyway, I'm so glad I backed off with the plans. Those photos will be posted shortly - and here they are.

We had a great visit with Theo's brother Murray, his wife Laura and our 2 nieces Emily (3) and Julia (4 months). They stayed with us for about 5 days and we had a bunch of fun showing them (or directing them) around Vancouver. We went to the Maplewood farms with the kids one day where they got to pet goats and bunnies, see a cow get milked and all sorts of other farm fun. Several friends and all their kids joined us too so there was lots of excitement over the animals. I was pretty excited about the goats and bunnies myself.

We'd been having the dishwasher floods again despite all the various plumbing repairs we'd had done under the sink and we finally worked out that it was coming from where the sink sprayer joined up with the pipes from the fixture. It is only around a year old but I was pretty much ready to just go buy a new fixture to get the problem solved. Thankfully, Murray is exceptionally handy and gave us a whole bunch of good advice about various house renovations, including the sink, and he came up with a $0.68 solution involving a hose clamp that completely solved our problem. I've been running the dishwasher flood free since then. Woo hoo! He also reinforced our deck railings with approx $3.00 worth of lag screws rather than us replacing the whole wobbly railing this summer. Plus he gave us good advice for creating a cement water barrier to prevent any more rain water running down the path and under our foundation. PLUS, (hard to believe there's more) they arrived with a beautiful compound mitre saw as our housewarming gift! It is so awesome! I literally jumped up and down with joy. Now I can easily do the baseboards and will probably add chair rails and crown moldings all over the place. It is sooooo good!


I've been loving the summer-ish weather despite a couple mild sunburns because I didn't realize the sun was that stong already. I've heard it has been snowing in Calgary and a couple other places around the country as we're toasting ourselves on the West coast. Is it cruel to laugh? How 'bout a mild chuckle under my breath? Okay, I'll play nice. *snerk* Okay, that was the last one.

I spent Monday this week helping my good friend Annelise do a "While you were out" redecoration of her bedroom while her husband Chris was kept out all day by his buddies. It was 12 hours of intense home renovation labour - we painted the walls, installed dimmer switches, sanded and repainted bookshelves and a dresser, installed an upholstered head board then reassembled everything. It turned out really well, and he was completely surprised so I consider it a job well done. Plus, she owes me big time for the next time I need an extra pair of hands around here.

During one of our runs to Home Despot for handles (noneof which were the correct size) I ran into an old friend from massage therapy school. Of course that happened on a day when I was wearing my painting sweat pants, a ratty men's undershirt, a baboushka and more paint on me than I got on the walls. Alas, it was nice to chat for a moment, but during the rest of our shopping trip I kept on my lookout to run away if I spotted any ex-boyfriends while in all my sexy renovation glory.

Yesterday we drove to Surrey to an electronics recycling place to dump old, broken printers, CPUs, a fax machine, VCR, DVD etc. but of course they weren't open on the weekend. Curses! They have a website but no posted hours - I really hate websites that have no useful content - and no-one was answering their phone when I called but I just really wanted all that crap out of my house. Well, it's out of my house now but taking up all the room in the trunk of my car. There was a part of me that wanted to just go throw it all in a dumpster but I decided that that wasn't the socially responsible answer so I will try again tomorrow now that I know how to get there.

I went to see the Delicate Art of Parking today at Tinseltown (our favourite theatre). It's a Canadian film that has been garnering good reviews and stars several people from the hysterical TV show Corner Gas (Wednesdays on CTV). The story, script and writing were good but it was shot in that handheld mocumentary style with shaky camera work and much spinning and blurring of the image. I spent the last 30 minutes of the film trying not to puke up my burrito. Not fun! The whole thing was shot in Vancouver and there was a bit of a meta moment when the people onscreen were driving by the theatre we were in watching the film and I'm like, "There we are right now." Well, not outloud because I try not to be a theatre talker. We had intended to go downtown after watching the movie but my poor tummy wasn't up for that at all so we came home and I had a nap. That was a good way to finish the weekend.

Another busy week finished. Plus a long weekend. Plus sunny, warm days. Plus a holiday that involves copious amounts of chocolate. Yipee!

I picked up Mum at the airport on Wednesday morning before heading off to work. It was good to see her and I felt a large load lift off my shoulders when I got to hand the care of Izzy back over to her. I worked a long day on Thursday then managed to have dinner with my friend Christoph whom I haven't seen for several years. It is totally shocking that he's one of my favourite people, a close friend since University, he lives in the same city as me but we haven't hooked up in years. I just don't quite understand what happens in friendships except that you have different interests and lifestyles and just gradually drift away.

I came to the realization the other day that Theovis and I have been together for 10 years now. That seems like a really long time, but it doesn't feel like it could be nearly that long. It also means that I have known all the people I met around the same time, who I think of as newer friends, for 10 years as well. It's weird. WEIRD!

On Thursday night, after my reunion dinner with Christoph - at a great Greek place on West Broadway called Kalamata - I hooked up with Jessica and some of her work friends for sangria and dancing. Much drinking - eventually involving vodka shots - and dancing ensued. We started off at an all-girl dance at the Wise Hall (near Commercial). A very lovely - and very confident - gal wearing nothing but pasties and a thong bikini was offering body shots of goldschlager in the centre of the room. Paradoxically, I have not seen that many mullets since my high school yearbook (I grew up in small town BC in the 80's - what ya gonna do?). We eventually left so that the straightest girl among us could have some guys to ogle but since the line up at the Odyssey was so long we decided to head back to our host's place where we could dance to her vast mp3 collection. Everything started winding down fairly quickly so I hopped into yet another cab and went home to my sweetie, who was still up playing video games despite it being a work night for him. I drank some water but not nearly enough and woke the next morning feeling pretty foggy and slow.

Yesterday I poked around with not much energy before heading off to acupuncture. It still isn't doing too much to help me so we're taking a more aggressive approach with more frequent and intense treatments to effect some change before my next bout of evil cramps. She also put in a couple points for my hangover and gave me some homeopathic remedy to help flush the alcohol out of my system. I don't know if it was the treatment or the time I spent sitting in the sun reading beforehand but I headed home feeling more crappy than ever and eventually ended up with a raging migraine headache that I was thankfully able to sleep off. I definitely understand why I don't do the partying very often anymore.

I threw a birthday party for my Theovis on Saturday night, which was a big hit. I had been super busy in the preceeding weeks so I didn't have much time for planning. Luckily I managed to pull it all together fairly last minute with much fun and lots of friends to help celebrate. After the success of the HeroClix birthday cake from last year, I didn't know what I was going to be able to do to even come close to that level of creativity. I ended up making cupcakes with various comic book interjections - Bam! Pow! Snikt! Kretch! - written on them in chocolate mousse. To make the cupcakes even more exciting I hollowed them out a bit and filled them with chocolate mousse before re-assembling them, icing them and decorating them. They were a big hit. I also took the same comic book expressions and wrote them on cut out pieces of posterboard and stuck them all over the walls as decorations. I'll post the photos once I don't have a happy kitty on my lap who would object to my finding the camera to download the photos.

Mum is coming back from her trip to Australia on Wednesday morning. As nice as it has been to have the privacy of the house all to ourselves, I am so looking forward to her coming home to take over looking after her cat Izzy. He is a whole lot of work. And as much as I love the little guy, I am looking forward to having more free time that doesn't involve insulin needles and multiple cat-box cleanings a day. And I really look forward to not having to listen to the unholy cry that he makes because he's lonely - anyone who has been over in the past 6 weeks knows what I'm talking about - which he will do even if I'm in the same room and he turns his back to me.

Speaking of free time, I'd better stop enjoying mine and get outside to mow the lawn.

I put up a description and photos of my latest renovation project here.

It's been a crazy couple weeks but I'm hoping things will settle down for a while. I just finished my last weekend on the board of the Massage Therapists' Association (MTA = professional association), although I was elected to the board of the College of Massage Therapists (CMT = regulatory body), so I'm not going to be fully free for a few more years. Although I sometimes totally hate the whole process, I think it is just too important to participate in the process than to just sit in the sidelines and watch it all happen. I think at the end of my CMT term I will be content to do some sideline sitting for a while, though.

Turns out I spoke way too soon in reporting our plumbing issues sorted out. I was running the dishwasher again as I did my earlier blog entry. The pipe seal we replaced worked perfectly but the water was leaking like crazy out of the on/off pipe that leads into the wall. I entered the kitchen to find the floor covered in water again with similar results dripping into Mum's place downstairs. Since the water had already made a clear path the other day, it flowed easily under the lino tiles and under the stove. I had to move the stove and rip up a bunch of the tiles to dry the water underneath.

This repair is beyond our plumbing skills so we're going to have to call in a professional - and hope he doesn't rip us off royally.

Anyone know a good plumber?

We had some drama involving a flood at the Douglass/Wiersma household on Thursday evening when we returned from work but were able to take care of most of the plumbing and structural repairs on the weekend. It turns out my dad was right when he said you shouldn't run appliances while you're out. Why do they always have to be right? *sigh* But there's only so much time in the day to get these things done and I don't know if I would have heard the flood taking place even if I had been home since the dishwasher is so loud and it was just a leaky pipe filling up the cupboard below the sink with water, which spread across the floor and eventually dripped into Mum's place downstairs. I guess I would have caught the mess sooner, though, which would have saved some of the damage to Mum's ceiling.

After doing some plumbing on Saturday, I mowed the lawn for the first time of the season and swept up a ton of cedar needles scattered around the yard and carport. Then I bundled a bunch of the crap that has been sitting in our carport making us look like total white trash - old drywall, extra doors, styrofoam etc. - and bundled it into the car for appropriate disposal. I also added several garbage bags of clothes and kitchenware which we dropped Salvation Army. It was a good day for bustling. Spring cleaning makes me very happy.

I really wanted to have a feast of Mexican food (beans, cheese and tequila) for dinner on Saturday night for our free day but I misunderstood the timing of a birthday party we were attending that night so I was denied my margaritas. Alas, I did get to have bubble tea and lots of Pad Thai. Mmmmm. Then I got to go dancing at Tonic, which is where the old Caprice theatre used to be, not to be confused with "The Caprice" club, 4 doors down from Tonic. The dancing was fun but I've come to realize that the total bliss I used to get dancing in a nightclub was not due to the pounding bass but to the liquor I consumed. Dancing with moderate amounts or no liquor is fun but just not the same but I don't consider it worth it to get completely slammed in order to get some sort of false-bliss. Getting mature kind of sucks.

On Valentine's Day, Theovis and I attended the "People's Prom" which involved dressing up in your best/worst prom outfit to attend the dance. We only got the invite the day before but luckily our vast costume reserves were up for the task.
(Click photo for larger image)

Theovis, on the right, sports a lovely gold, satin tuxedo, conceived and created by Sandra Douglass, first seen in a 1989 production of Grease at South Peace Senior Secondary in Dawson Creek, BC.

Vertigogirl, on the left, is stunning in orange polka-dot, ruffled beyond comprehension by Sandra Douglass. This number comes straight out of West Side Story at Terry Fox Senior Secondary in Port Coquitlam, BC. Difficult to see in the photo is how exactly the model's finger and toenails match the dress.

We danced like crazy, drank some tequila and got kisses at the kissing booth. A stellar night in my opinion. We didn't stick around long enough to see the king and queen crowned, but we thought it would be nice to give a few of the others a chance to win.

Following another link from another blog, I made this picture. Not so accurate but not bad for a collection of pixels.


I was so tired after my acupuncture treatment today that I came home and passed out on the couch for a couple hours. Sephie was thrilled and slept on my stomach the entire time. I had to force myself to get up eventually - much to the kitty's displeasure - but I knew I was going to have enough trouble sleeping tonight as it was. Plus, my neck was really unhappy with the 'craned against the couch cushion' position. Eventually I woke up, had a snack and worked away at my tax expense spread sheets. I'm getting there but just have to add up a few more expenses for the home office.

I think the acupuncture is helping a little - I'm taking less Advil than I was to combat the evil cramps - but they're still there much stronger than I'd like. I figure I'll give it another month before I do something drastic - like take the pill non-stop so I don't have to deal with my period for years at a time.

I went to ballet class tonight despite being crampy and having a cold. I had to miss the class last week because of the car stereo debacle, and the week before because I was in tax mode. I figured if I missed again, she'd call in a missing person's report. Despite being super tired and cranky as I headed out, I actually felt quite a bit better during and following the class. I think breaking down and taking more Advil helped too.

I've been reading other people's blogs and following links. I did a goofy personality test and came up with these results. I think it's about as accurate as any of these things ever are... gotta love 46% for 'emotional stability' and the 86% for 'anxiety'. Yikes!

Cattell's 16 Factor Test Results Warmth |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Intellect |||||||||||||||||| 58% Emotional Stability ||||||||||||||| 46% Aggressiveness ||||||||||||||| 46% Liveliness ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Dutifulness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Social Assertiveness ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Artistic Interests |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Paranoia ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Abstractness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Introversion |||||||||||||||||| 54% Anxiety |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86% Openmindedness ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Independence ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Perfectionism |||||||||||||||||| 58% Tension |||||||||||||||||| 58%

Take Free 16pf based Personality Test

I lost my wedding band for a while yesterday and I was extremely upset. I've lost it before - for weeks at a time - but knew it was kicking around the house somewhere but this time I really thought it was gone. I'd been carrying it (with my other rings) in my change purse because I'd forgotten my watch at home on Friday so when I took off my rings for work, I didn't have my handy watch strap to hang them on. My change purse seemed like the safest option. Not actually so safe because on Saturday morning while I was digging in said change purse for change for tip money for the Starbucksians, I managed to throw my gold wedding band in with my contribution.

Thankfully, after a couple phone calls - the first one me, asking if anyone had found a wedding band and the guy telling me "no, and I doubt you'll get it back" and me saying "well, that makes me feel really good. Thanks so much!", hanging up, then crying; followed by Theo's "Can you check the tip jar to see if there's a gold wedding band in there? Okay, when the woman who has access to the tips from earlier comes in, can you ask her to call Theo? Yeah, that's right, 'Leo'." - Theo was able to go in the the store and pick up the ring (I'd gone to a meeting by this point). They had said to bring ID, which I found funny considering that we were the ones who called asking if they'd found a specific item, but aparently showing his identical ring was enough, because 'Leo' wasn't asked to prove he was who he said he was.

Well, so far so good with the new stereo in the car. The last one they installed seems not to be a lemon so I can stop stressing about the whole situation. Theo thinks the CD players merely had good taste and were protesting the playing of the Darkness, while I don't know how it could possibly dislike a band who is revisiting 70's glam rock, dresses in spandex jumpsuits and sings in falsetto. It's gold, baby!

In other news my mum's poor cat continues to vocally protest her vacation in Australia - she's visiting relatives and travelling to Tasmania with old school chums. He thinks it is complete bullsh*t that we aren't home as much as she is and don't provide him with the attention and pets he receives while she's around. We do what we can with the attention but generally have to listen to him howling like he's being dismembered any time he's awake and we're not downstairs with him. We've tried to bring him upstairs to hang out with us on several occasions but he just heads straight for the downstairs door again - not that I blame him with both Sephie and Morgan hissing and growling at him. Yup, we're just one happy family. At least he's very well behaved about the insulin shots I have to give him twice a day. I'm getting better with the needles and I think I have poked it straight through the skin to shoot insuling straight out the other side once this time.

I spent a super-frustrating afternoon yesterday getting my Christmas present from Theo - a CD player for the car - installed in said car. I decided to buy a refurbished unit, which I figured would work fine, but just maybe not as long as the more expensive new one. What a mistake!

Within 4 songs of leaving A&B sound, the unit died. I drove back and they installed a different refurbished unit. Within 5 songs, it died again. I drove back yet again and they installed yet another refurbished unit. I made it home with that one still working - keep your fingers crossed for me - but I wasted my whole afternoon waiting around for all the installation and removal. They told me that I could simply buy a new unit for an extra $20 if the problems continued, which was completely contrary to what the dude who sold me the original piece of crap had said (they'll replace it with a better one, free of charge, if they can't replace it with the same one. I guess I'll need to run out their stocks of refurbished ones first). Aack!

I'm so mad that I hadn't just spent the extra money on a new one in the first place. I hadn't realized that the price difference was so low once you added in the extra warantees etc. Now I just feel like an idiot. Gah! And I feel like I should be compensated in some way for having to go back so many times but of course I'm not assertive enough to get my way and I'm sure I'll end up having to pay for the upgrade if this one craps out too.

I received one of the strangest spam messages for a "University Education" the other day. I inadvertently clicked it instead of the real message below and the following text caught my eye:

necromancers remain makeshift.
He called her Maryellen (or was it Maryellen?). Unlike so many guardian angels who have made their foreign eggplant to us.

Maryellen, the friend of Maryellen and rejoices with carpet tack for. When you see inside menagé à trois, it means that crank case of impresario meditates. Most dissidents believe that inside steam engine sanitize briar patch toward prime minister. prime minister ignore over anomaly.

That is pretty deep stuff for a random collection of words that won't get picked up by a spam filter. Necromancers remain makeshift, indeed.

I installed a new bifold door for the bedroom closet yesterday. The dude at Rona insisted that the one I bought would fit the opening dimensions I showed him, but he totally lied. Once I'd opened the package, I saw that you could get smaller ones through special order, but being the impatient gal that I am, I simply hacked 2 inches off the new door with the circular saw, drilled new holes for the pivots and installed it as it was. It looks quite nice and saved me having to refinish and reinstall the old door.

I've been trying to get motivated enough to really make a hard effort at getting my tax receipts organized. I've sorted them into envelopes but need to create Excel spreadsheets to add everything up. It's such a big job that I can't quite face it yet, yet I know that getting it over with will make my life less stressful. I also know that there are more of last year's receipts kicking around all over the place and it seems like too much effort to dig through to find them all.

I also keep coming up with other tasks I need to do before I do this - like tidying up around the computer so I can even keep track of the receipts in the stratified layers of paper currently covering the desk. Or maybe reorganizing the closet so I can move the unused-for-10-years-amplifier into the closet, creating more room in the office and (in my fantasy world, anyway) less clutter and mess. It hearkens back to my old college days of "How can I possibly study when the bathroom is such a mess?" Ahh, good times.

I've been getting acupuncture for a few weeks to see if it can do anything for - too much information alert! Guys, you might want to change the channel now! - my menstrual cramps. I couldn't say if it has made any difference for me yet, but maybe it will take a few cycles to sort things out. Anything that doesn't involve me doubled up, crying, and sucking back the Advil every 4 hours is good in my book. She did give me these cool Moxibustion patches to stick to my tummy - they heat up and are pretty soothing. I love the heat pads Playtex makes that stick to the outside of my undies and heat through, rather than to my skin the way these do, but the Moxibustion ones have a therapeutic herbal component that apparently stimulate the appropriate areas like when they do it with the needles.

The Doctor totally thinks I'm a stress-monkey, though. She's not incorrect, but I just wish it weren't so obvious. We were chatting about how tight my neck and shoulders are and I just mentioned several times that it's due to my job. She said to me quietly, 'it's not all the job, Kate.' And I was like, 'oh.' She then did this weird scraping thing that left my shoulders and neck all bruised but I think they felt better the next day. I seem to have almost full range of motion again when I shoulder check in the car. She made up some sort of tincture for me which I think is supposed to be calming but I'm wary of calm and relaxation. They just interfere with my efficiency...

I spent such a frustrating day yesterday waiting for patients who were either late or didn't show up at all. Grr! It drives me so nuts because I'm very conscious of running on time - 10 minutes late is super-late for me. The other therapists in my clinic are the complete opposite - sometimes (often?) running 30 minutes late while their patients cool their heels in the waiting room.

Last night, for example, I was pacing around waiting for my last patient who was 20 minutes late (and was the third person I'd sat around waiting for that day), I had to watch a woman give up after waiting 30 minutes for her 30 minute appointment. There's a good chance she won't come back to our clinic, and I probably could have treated her and had her out the door before the person who was scheduled to see me showed up. It frustrates the hell out of me.

I've been sitting at the computer obsessively researching plane tickets, rail tickets and accomodation for Prague over the past few days since Tea suggested going in the spring this year. At first I wasn't that interested but the more I thought about it, the greater it sounded, especially with another couple to hang with. And (unlike me) Tea loves to talk to people so she'd be a great travel companion who would find out where to go and where to avoid.

It's completely a maybe at this point, but as always, I've gotten myself worked up into a tizzy of excitement over it and really wish I could book the plane today so that I know for sure we're going and can relax. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to wait and see whether Tea and Jeff can actually go (which is a little cruel after she was the one who suggested it in the first place). Idonwannawait!!

So instead, I'm trying to concentrate on doing some work for the Massage Therapists' Assoc and beginning to tabulate the immense piles of receipts I accumulated last year as a self-employed person. It is never to early to get started on the old taxes. Sigh. Planning walking routes in Prague is way more fun...

Today Theo and I got back on the Body for Life. In preparation, after a month of sloth and gluttony, yesterday I chucked out any residual treats so I wouldn't be tempted anymore with the lousy chocolates that I refuse to eat until I'm completely desperate. This morning we woke up early, did our workout, took our "before" polaroids, weighed in and ate well. I then headed off to Safeway - at 8:30am - and stocked up on the healthy food we'll need. I buzzed around very efficiently on my endorphin buzz and ate extremely well all day. I wasn't even craving any crap because I'm so glad to be back on the path that is kind to my body - and will have my pants fitting better.

That was until I discovered a cache of Purdy's chocolate bells (my absolute favourites) in a little bag while I was cleaning the office. Losing all control, I sucked down all 6 of the little bastards in record time, not even enjoying them. I tried to convince myself that it is better I got them out of the house and that it's better to have eaten them today since I'm only starting back at everything. It didn't work, though, and now I have a large, chocolate bell-shaped ball of shame in my belly. Sigh.

Well, all I can really do is look ahead from here. So here I go... Only healthy food for me until Sunday!

I've decided to try using Blogger to update my journal, rather than simply coding up the pages the way I used to. I'm hoping it will encourage me to write more often since I won't have to do as much work to make it happen. It also allows you, gentle readers, to enter comments about the my entries. Please comment away.

I'm starting to feel vaguely healthy again - though I do still have that lingering cough. I was able to work a full day on Friday, as well as attend 2 birthday parties on Saturday night, which cheered me up immesurably, though I didn't drink and we were home by midnight.

We spent Saturday day sitting watching movies. I saw Adaptation for the second time, which I heartily enjoyed, as well as Magnolia, which I enjoyed a lot less. It was an interesting character study and all, clever interweaving of storylines etc. but it just didn't grip me. I wasn't gripped. So I sorted the second half of 2003's tax receipts into their appropriate envelopes as I watched, and felt like I'd accomplished something valuable with that time.

I had to come home from work today because I couldn't stop coughing. I'm really mad about it because I've been sick since Saturday, when we had to cancel a tubing trip so a could convalesce. And instead of my usual at home restlessness, I spent 4 days lying on the couch, reading and sleeping yet I'm still not recovered. Even worse, I had to stop in the middle of a treatment - after having left the room twice already - and tell the patient I couldn't continue. She was understanding, and I promised her a free treatment next time, but it made me feel like an extremely lousy therapist.

Of course, once I was out of the super-dry clinic and out of the stressful "don't cough" environment, my cough calmed right down. I punished it with Buckley's anyway. I know it's their gimmick, but man, I can't belive how awful that stuff is!