I’ve moved to a new blog at www.cutetoaster.ca/blog.
See you there!
2009 goals
I usually think about the upcoming year around my birthday as opposed to New Year’s Day. I think because on the 1st I’m usually still winding down from the holidays.I don’t call them resolutions because they’re usually things I want to try out; I’m not going to resolve to eat durian forever if I try it and I hate it. (Not that I’d ever eat durian *shudder*).
Here is my list of things I want to do this year:
- Complete the couch to 5k running program
- Complete The Artist’s Way
- Do one hundred push ups
- Do two hundred sit curl ups
- Get my class 6 learner’s license
- Complete a motorcycle rider’s course
- Get my unrestricted class 6 license
- Buy a motorcycle & gear
- Figure out a better work/commute/life balance
- Eat healthier
- Write more
- Get my own website
- Put 10% of my gross income into an RRSP
- Save 5-10% of my gross income in a high interest savings account
- Get my Celtic star tattoo fixed
- Get at least one more tattoo
- Paint the inside of the house
- Fix the front of the house
- Fix the backyard
If 50 is the new 30, I’m 10 today!
It’s been a pretty good day. Paul took me out for day one of Toasterpalooza this afternoon, going “every where Laurie wants to go”. I shopped for books and incense at Banyan Books & Sound. We went to the Naam for lunch and then hit up Country Beads (got some beautiful labradorite, amythyst, turquoise, and citrine beads), Granville Island, and Voltage. I love Voltage! This was my first trip out there. I got a Tokidoki Moofia blind box (I got Japanese Milk) and a Tokidoki “Latte” t-shirt. The whole friggin’ window display was Tokidoki!
I guess this is more evidence that I turned 10, not 30.
Tomorrow we’re going to the Vancouver motorcycle show and out for dinner. Monday night we’re going out for dinner with Graeme, Laura and Traviss.
Paul’s gift to me is amotorcycle lessons. We’re taking our class 6 license lessons this year for sure, for real, absolutely, no excuses: we’re doing it.
We’re probably going to get dual-sport bikes. Much as I love sportbikes, we’d probably get more use out of something that we can also take off-road. My Mom bought a cabin this autumn that is in prime dirkbike/ATV country (up in Tulameen).
It’s weird researching them because I don’t know much about dual-sports. It seems to me that there are ones that are more “dirtbike-y” and ones that are more “sportbike-y”. Of couse, I like the sportier ones better. My favourites right now are the BMW F650GS (which is actually a 798cc and a v-twin) and the Kawasaki KLR650. Our first bikes are likely to be used, and more dirtbike-y, as they he less stuff to break on them.
So far, being 30 is pretty good. My twenties are a little tough at times, but I’m looking forward to good times ahead in the next, well…ever!
Cranky
Our commute just got two hours longer.
If you’re local, you already know about the fire that destroyed the approach to the south-side of the Patullo bridge over the weekend. Apparently it’s going to take 4 – 6 weeks to repair (which I think is an optimistic estimate). Over 80,000 vehicles traveled over the Patullo; now they’re all having to re-route. One of the alternative routes is the way we commute in to work (along with any of the alternate rou. What normally takes us 45 minutes is taking an hour to an hour and a half (each way). Traffic is just crawling along.
Not only is it a pain/aggravating/frustrating (take your pick!) to have my day made longer, I’m worried about the dogs. That’s a lot longer than they’re used to waiting for going outside. A couple of years ago it took us four hours to get home because of snow and ice on the highway, and poor Bender (he was just a puppy) peed all over the kitchen. Poor little guy, he couldn’t help it.
I think they can hold it; but it will probably be uncomfortable for them.
In January my clock winds down
The wheels fall off
Bed seems like a good place to stay.
Winter’s charms have become stale
Rationed sunshine never stretches far enough
The week seems like one endless dark day.
Everything smells like thawed out dirt
The weather is mostly cold and bleak
Ground, sky, buildings, cars all dingy and grey.
It’s rough, but adequate. I feel very unmotivated and gloomy these days.Tomorrow is “Blue Monday”, the most depressing day of the year.
January is a gloomy month. The only holiday it has is at the very beginning, and it’s not a big day for celebrating (more like recovering), and we know that there aren’t any more holidays until March or April.
I made my birthday into an extended weekend. We’re taking Thursday, Friday, and Monday off. We’re planning on going to the Vancouver Motorcycle Show on Friday. I haven’t been in a few years. For once I’m interested in something besides just sportbikes. I want to have a look at dirtbikes, since my Mom’s new cabin is in excellent dirtbiking country.
Grumpy
Maybe I’m not cut out for this whole social media thing. Maybe I just don’t get it. I have people add me on Twitter once in awhile because (I think) we share an interest, or if I’m being really ambitious, that person though my tweet was funny or insightful. And yeah, I get the Twitter spammers, who seem to fall into two camps:
1. People who want to buff up their following/followers list
2. People who want to market or sell something
It’s a lot more of number 2. Since I’ve mentioned my iBook, I have people whose sole purpose on Twitter seems to be jailbreaking iPhones trying to be my Twitter followers. I think I know what jailbreaking an iPhone is, but since I have no desire to own one, or take a second mortgage out for the data plan, it’s kind of futile.
The thing I don’t get is the people who tweet constantly. They ask questions, then spend the next 10-15 minutes posting all the answers their followers send them. It’s great when I’m at work and working on something with a Firefox page open, and TwitterFox floods the screen with a bunch of nonsense.
Argh.
Anyways, yes: I’ve removed the offending Twitter-ers from my timeline.
The things Paul says:
Paul has a post-viral bacterial infection, so he coughs all the time. He was prescribed a cough syrup with codeine. He ended up taking an extra dose last night, which facilitated this conversation this morning:
Paul: “Argh, my liver hurts!”
Me: “It’s painful on your right side?”
Paul: “No Laurie, your liver is on your left side.”
Me: “Uh, no: it’s on the right.” (Thinking, duh, I’ve seen my liver on ultrasound, I know where it is!)
Paul: “No, it’s on your left…right here!” (Rubs right side of his abdomen.)
Me: “Yeah right there: on your right side!”
Paul: “Whatever, it hurts!”
Paul wants me to point out that he was wacked out on codeine during this conversation, and when you’re looking at someone, the liver in on your left.
I’m used to asking people, “which paw hurts, the left or the right?…No, that’s his right paw…Yes, I know it’s on your left, but it’s his sore paw, not yours!”
25 things
I was tagged by Kimli. Consider yourself tagged if you want to participate.
Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged.
Warning: the first one is pretty gross if you’re squeamish. Which will probably make you want to read it more, but don’t blame me after! … continue reading this entry.
This is why “being connected” sucks
Because of Facebook, I know that our clinic’s xray machine isn’t working. It’s not the developer/processor, it’s the actual machine. It seems to not be exposing the cassettes. Greeeeat. I couldn’t rein in my curiosity, and I logged in to work to see that tomorrow is fully booked (what the hell!?) and we have an orthopedic surgery scheduled. Excellent. You never have to take an xray after doing surgery on a bone, am I rite?
I also went back and saw that the last two weeks looked surprisingly busy. It will never cease to amaze me what people decide MUST BE SEEN on Christmas and/or New Year’s Eve.
So yeah, I am totally looking forward to going back to work…
…as long as we can get out of the driveway. It’s been snowing again, and the roads are terrible. Likely because everyone belived the weather forecast saying that today was going to have a high of +6 with rain. We went out for a belated anniversary dinner and had to dig out the driveway when we got back home.
But if I don’t go in I’ll just be sitting at home feeling incredibly guilty. Sigh.
techtoast.wordpress.com
In order to avoid boring people who don’t particularly care about my open source projects, I’ve started a separate blog and I’ve moved all those posts over there. You can find it at techtoast.wordpress.com
