Progress report

The kitchen is still cabinet door-less, now both top and bottom. The top cabinet doors took Grant almost exactly a week to complete, a lengthy process. He had to clean them, sand them, glue on the new trim, prime them-- twice, and then apply two coats of paint. The paint is oil-based, which takes at least 12 hours to dry so...lengthy. We took the lower ones down on Friday and Grant has them ready for the second prime coat. Which means, by this weekend the cabinets are done!

The counters will either arrive this week or next--hopefully this one. The woman I ordered them from had to call me back to check on the finishing edges we had ordered and we may have missed a window at the factory because of that delay. I am hoping this week. I ordered all the tile yesterday, except for the one colour I ordered on eBay (which arrived today!! Woot!!!!), so barring any unforeseen delays in the tiles coming in, we may be ready for the final steps early next week. I am getting really excited and more than a little nervous.

Have I mentioned how much my husband rocks? He works on my cabinet doors every single day; inhaling God-knows what kind of vapours from the paint and dust and whatnot. And they look absolutely fabulous!


Edited to add: Eeep!! The tile place just called and my tiles are in already!! Now all we need is counters and we are golden.

Naughty dream...

...involving Anthony Stewart Head and Sara Ramirez; one dressed as a Chinese concubine wearing platform shoes and the other naked.

That's all you get.

My poor squished boobs

Yep, had a mammogram today. And no, there are no pictures.

In other news: Jumper is a perfectly terrible movie.

Kitchen: Stage 1

How the kitchen used to be:



Now, minus the upper cupboard doors:



Which are undergoing a face-lift in the basement:



Bonus photo of my backsplash design:

On February 17th, 2001

I said " I do."



I still do.

Rethinking food

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the way I eat. Both Grant and I had put on quite a bit of weight over the holidays, and so we went back on the South Beach Diet in January. We also eliminated all alcohol from our diet for a month. The first week, I dropped about 9 pounds, then I stalled completely. Grant lost a little bit, but not nearly as much as either of us expected. It was frustrating, to say the least.

I know one of the reasons diets ultimately don't work is because you are starving your body and your body cleverly begins finding ways to store fat so it can survive. But honestly, the way we have been eating is not anywhere near a starvation diet. We eat loads of veggies, and a moderate amount of cheese, fruit and whole grains. We allow ourselves little chocolate treats. So what is going on?

I found myself looking at the Canadian Food Guide. The first thing that I really noticed was how little meat or meat alternatives were recommended. Both Grant and I easily eat twice that in any given day. We don't eat nearly as much of the recommended amount of grains. I think we are pretty dead on with our vegetables and fruits and our milk. So, I am considering limiting the amount of meat we are consuming. That means no more chicken bacon for breakfast. It means good bye to the cold cuts for lunch. It means that a "normal" serving of chicken, pork or beef at dinner is pretty much all the meat I can eat in one day. Heck, the piece of chicken I ate two nights ago and the lean piece of steak I had last night were twice the recommended serving size and they weren't all that big!

I am also consciously trying to eat more grains. I already do a pretty good job at breakfast; I either eat Fibre One Cereal or Nature's Path Organic Oatmeal. I am cooking brown basmati rice or whole wheat pasta more often at dinner. I am seriously thinking about trying to bake some of my own bread; I find the store-bought versions are really high in sugars and I don't trust how truly "whole" wheat they are.

I am not really expecting to lose weight this way, but I am starting to think that what I really need to be concentrating on is the health value of my diet. I need to make sure I am getting enough Calcium and Vitamin D in my diet. I am not getting any younger, I have to worry about bone density and that crap. I have to get my colon screened to make sure everything is working. I am peri-menopausal, although my symptoms so far have been minimal. And both Grant and I want to grow very, very old together.

Snow. Many snow. Much snow.

Just so you don't think I am complaining about nothing.

February 6th



February 13th



Cute dog

Brrrrrrrr

Stupid weather. It is -10c with a wind chill of -20. For those of you Celsiusly challenged, that would be -2F. Yeah, I know, not as cold as some places, but nevertheless. It is too cold to walk to the mailbox to check to see if we have any new DVDs. It is too cold for the dog to stay outside for more than 3 minutes. It is too cold for me to do anything except bitch about how cold it is.

Designing a kitchen is HARD

But I think we have finally made all of the decisions. Woot!! Today, we ordered the new countertop. It is a Formica counter in Jasper Envision. The colour on the website is darker than the actual laminate, it is actually a very green green and goes perfectly with the tile.

We are using the tile as a backsplash. I have designed a pattern in diamond shapes using a single patterned tile surrounded by gold and terra cotta in a horizontal pattern. The top and bottom of the backsplash will be green tiles in halves. The remainder of the backsplash will be a creamy white. I think the design will really pop and the colours will tie together the colours in the living room and dining room.

The cabinets will also be a creamy white colour, with a moulding trim similar to what we did in the bathroom. We asked the guy at the tile place to give us a quote on some absolutely gorgeous cabinet doors in a shaker-style, which is our preferred look (and one we haven't been able to figure out how to do on our own), but I suspect the cost will be prohibitive. As it is, we are looking at less than $150 to trim and paint the cabinets, $650 for the countertop and about $200 for the tile. We are waiting for the guy who did our hardwood floors to give us a quote on installation, the other places have given us rough estimates of about $850 for installation of counters and tile. So, it looks like we can get a whole new kitchen for less than $2000. How cool is that?

Happiness is..

a lyric from You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Go ahead. Ask me another. As long as it isn't too terribly current, I could probably name the song, the musical, the names of the original cast members and if I own it on vinyl. Yes, I used to be a SERIOUS musical comedy geek. But then I moved to Canada, leaving my gay friends and ex-dancer-ex-husband behind and I kind of got out of touch with musicals. I rarely popped one into the CD player, because, not only does the new husband not entirely "get" the musical theatre obsession (oh, he tries, but it is a very new thing for him), the ex got half the CD collection.

Have I mentioned that the only real fight over splitting up the joint property occurred over the CD collection?

But.

Grant bought himself a Satellite radio for his car. It has an entire channel devoted exclusively to Broad. Way. Said husband recognized my rapturous reception of said channel and bought me my very own Satellite radio for Christmas. Now, it's Broadway all the time.

I have already started buying original cast recordings again. My latest purchase is the musical version of Legally Blonde, which not only doesn't suck, it is friggin' hilarious!!

Yes, I will buy Spring Awakening, too, but it's so nice to have a silly, frothy, fun musical in the house!

Yet another snow day

I feel like I hit the lottery! It feels very odd to be home right now- it is not currently snowing and the roads I can see out my window look quite accessible. But there is a system on its way into town and my school district decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Still, looking outside, I keep feeling like it all was a mistake and I am going to get a call any minute saying "Where the heck are you??"

Until that time (hee), I am considering how to spend my day. Grant asked me to pull out our tax information, which is tremendously boring, but since he had to go to work today, it seems an advisable chore to keep my marriage a happy one. I also need to do some research on how to do my US tax return. I am thinking about trying to file on my own instead of using an accountant, but we will see. Paperwork is not my passion.

I think today would be a good day to make some more bath salts. I was not terribly happy with the batch of lavender I kept for myself the last time; I hope the lavender salts I sent out were a bit more scented. I need to look over my supplies and possibly make some new orders. Grant wants to make some shower gel using the essential oils, so I may need some more. We are still tweaking our recipes to try and improve our product.

I really should take advantage of the break in the weather and go to the gym. I worked out yesterday and was totally proud of myself for doing my upper body stuff on my own. My current workout plan is to meet with my trainer once a week, work out at least one other time on my own and take my Pilates class on Saturday morning. The check in with my trainer each week helps motivate me to go on my own. I really need that incentive, because left to myself, I would never work out. My attitude towards exercise is not one of love. Not too long ago, after listening to me moan and groan my way through an exercise, my trainer commented "There must be something you actually enjoy about your workout." I thought about it and replied, "Not really." She was astonished and a little sad, I think. But the truth is, I do enjoy some of the exercises, particularly the ones where I feel buff and strong (yes, biceps curls, I'm looking at you!), but there will never be a time I like any of the abs exercises!!

Anyway, if I am going, it should be soon. Then I think I will come home and watch The Devil Wears Prada. And see if Project Runway episode 10 is up on YouTube.

Snow Day

No school today!!! Being a teacher in the Great White North has its advantages. As you all know, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the only thing that could keep school from happening was a big-ass earthquake, so I was a novice to the notion of a snow day. We have only had 3 school cancellations since I became a teacher, so this is a rare and unexpected treat. The snow is falling steadily and the worst of the storm (the same storm that just finished battering Texas---you okay, Jess?)is yet to come. We may get up to 30 centimetres of snow.

I feel bad for all the people who actually have to go to work. It's bad enough that I have to go out to the bank because someone has apparently initiated some fradulent activity on my bank card- a $2,000 telephone banking transfer--yikes! So, I have to don my boots and venture out to sign some affidavits and prove who I am so I can get a new card. I have been pondering my purchases over the last couple of days, and I am wondering where the card got compromised. I shopped at PayLess Shoes, Winners and Reitman's the other day, I also used my card at the Y and at my bank machine. I suspect Winners, who had a problem last year with their system. Remind me not to use my card there again, okay?

Anyway, once I get back home, I have a few chores to do, then I think I will curl up with my Civil War history and enjoy. I have a training session at the Y at 4:30, but I strongly suspect my trainer will need to cancel due to the snow. We shall see.

A reminder to those of you who haven't weighed in on the bath salts dilemma; please let me know what you think of my shipping and pricing ideas.