Category Archives: TMI!

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And I\’m done…

With this damn apartment!  Back in the winter, my heating didn\’t work very well at all.  Whomever lived here prior broke off the adjustment knob and I can\’t get the heat to go up past 1 so when it was really cold outside it was on some occasions below 0 degree\’s  in my apartment.  My living room/kitchen area isn\’t insulated very well, no storm windows and plastic over said windows? FAIL…  I\’ve been asking my landlord for MONTHS to get its fixed and by months I mean almost 6 now.

My hot water tank?  Yeah that\’s another treat!  It would overflow, making my bedroom feel like the amazon because of the steam.  Soaked the floor which has ruined God knows how many things now at this point because there was just SO much water on my floor.  So I couldn\’t shower for a few days, and when it stopped over-filling then it would take 10 hours to heat back up again.  My friends boyfriend who\’s thankfully a plumber, not to mention a really nice guy said its working but pretty much on the way out.  Brought this to her attention, said to give  her two days she\’d have it looked at, umhmmm yeah NOPE not fixed STILL!  I mean it works but one of these days its not going to work at all.
Then there\’s my shower, the diverter stopped working so my shower was always on. Justin fixed it for me, then there goes my shower head which still spews out water everywhere but mostly not ON you while your in there… Again empty promises about having it fixed… Then she dumps the problem on me of tracking down the repair guys! WTF, NOT MY PROBLEM/RESPONSIBILITY! According to her, she\’d send them over to my house because they \”were in the area\” which she CAN\’T do, expected ME to make appointments with them because she lives really far and can\’t be bothered and claims that she doesn\’t have a key… This has been the repair battle royale for months now! I was fed up already, but today REALLY was the icing on the cake that was already poisoned…

When I moved in here there was noticeable water damage on the ceiling in my hallway which she said she would have repaired (yeah right!) Whatever aside from being slightly un-sightly it wasn\’t too much of a bother to me. I had to run out & buy some stuff for dinner tonight, John was on his way over & I said I\’d meet him at my place.
I\’m coming home, John texts me to tell me that my hallway is leaking which I didn\’t pay much attention to at the time because I thought maybe it was just because there was water on the floor from Heddy\’s new self watering water bowl. Nope, that fucker was spewing nasty water from upstairs somewhere. Thankfully John threw a towel down on the floor & grabbed something to catch the water while I was gone. However what if I wasn\’t home? What if I was in Ontario & John wasn\’t there and there was a flood? So after almost wiping out due to the water on my cheap faux hardwood floors I snapped. I was stark raving mad! I have enough on my plate to contend with and then this? So I fired off a bitchy e-mail to my landlord, took pictures of the ceiling and I\’m calling the Regie in the morning and filling a complaint. I\’ve been nice about this because my heat obviously I don\’t need right now and my hot water tank has behaved for the last little while but this tops them all!
I offered on NUMEROUS occasions to have someone *I* know come in and fix it. I know plumbers & general contractors who offered to get my heat fixed and my hot water tank BELOW cost because they know me, and will do it when I\’m free. Because all those jackasses she told me to call DON\’T work past 3pm unless its an emergency so she expects me to be home when its convient for HER *or* have one of my friends hang out at my house waiting for them to arrive, I think not!

To top it all off, my left arm is inflamed, I have little to no feeling in my pinky finger on my left hand so I think (read hope) that its just my carpal tunnel flaring up which is a simple surgery and I noticed I have a cavity that I can\’t afford to address at the moment and can only hope that my new found OCD dental regime will hold it off until July.
I mean really can it get any worse? I\’m not playing the woe is me card cos that\’s not my style but DAMMIT I HAVE PMS & NO PATIENCE! So I needed to bitch.
There, I feel better now…

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What a crazy weekend!

But it was pretty awesome!  Friday left a lot to be desired as my other problem child tooth was being a pain in my ass!  Thankfully its pretty much dead with only residual nerve endings left so its not exactly painful just epically irritating!  Work was kinda of insane, I got sung happy birthday a lot that day lol.  So I went from being 30, to 30 something :p  The best part of that day was coming home and having Krystal drop off my birthday cake!  Which was adorable, and exceptionally yummy!  OMG seriously the best chocolate mocha/with almond icing cake I have ever had!

I\’m still battling this cold/flu thing I have going on, teamed up with allergies which is just horrifying!  So needless to say I haven\’t been feeling a 100% regardless of the fact that I had my birthday soiree planned for Saturday.  The crappy thing about Saturday was I had a doctors appointment.  Don\’t get me wrong my OBGYN is actually really nice but I mean really who actually *likes* going to the gyno…  So he turned down my request to get my tubes tied and has been forewarned that I will badger him about it when I have to see him in December and any appointment after that lol.  Simply put: I DON\’T WANT KIDS!!!!!!!  The mere thought of having a child horrifies me and I would in all honesty would very much rather adopt *IF* I had the burning need to raise a child.  Like I told Dr. G there\’s too many un-wanted babies in this world that deserve a home, so why should I go to the trouble of spitting out one of my own?  That and I\’m sick of taking the pill.  No the $17.00/month cost is nothing compared of raising a child of course but it would mean FREEDOM from ALL forms of birth control. Le sigh…  *TMI WARNING* although one good thing did come out of my visit with Dr. G: He told me that when your on the pill your period is artificial and not even remotely necessary unless of course your trying to get pregnant.  SO he told me that yes its OK to take your 21 pills and start on a new pack right away without having to wait the customary 7 days before starting a new pack. Thank God for small favors!  So I\’m going to give that a whirl, I\’ll let you know how that all works out.

Anyway I was outta there by 1pm, and had some last minute things to pick up stuff  like garnishes for my martini fix, and some items to assist a friends foster pet shelter (reach for the stars rescue) since she was coming over to pick up stuff for her garage sale for charity anyway so I bought some new items for her for the animals, go to the bank, head off to the SAQ for some vanilla vodka and various other goodies to make various martinis that I had planned to experiment with later that evening and clean my apt because I was too tired to do it Friday evening.

I was almost tempted to cancel my party because I wasn\’t feeling a 100%, half of my guests were sick/had dental issues like myself and so on.  John was sick and couldn\’t make it so were going to get together sometime this week.  Every time I plan something either its a hit or a miss and I really thought that this was going to be a miss… I thought wrong!  My apt is tiny so I kept the guest list down to a minimum but it was fun!  Its nice to get together with people I  don\’t get to see very often and well who doesn\’t like birthday swag!  I have to say I have some VERY generous friends 🙂

I got a really nice book from Donna:

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris (Hardcover)

Which is HILARIOUS!  A tad crass and far from being \”PC\”, I recommend this as a gift to anyone who\’s into food or entertaining and of course has a sense of humor!  I generally as a rule hate recipe books since I prefer to do things my way.  I have a subscription a Kraft Canada\’s what\’s cooking magazine because its helpful and practical (not to mention free in Canada woo hoo!) and  how to cook everything which is super helpful if your just starting out since it has a TON of techniques & helpful tips, not to mention some great recipes as well.  In today\’s day and age with the internet I generally hit up epicurious.com for some inspiration if I happen to be lacking or want to make something new.

Krystal made my birthday cake for me which was as already mentioned AMAZING!  Not to mention a great gift!  Megan in true foodie form bought me my very own basil plant which was also equally awesome.  My mom got me a magazine subscription and new wheels for my suitcase (well she gave me her CC number and an amount to spend and that\’s what I bought).  Shane and Dana made a contribution to my summer tattoo fund along with some nibs which is Shane & I\’s favorite licorice ( I bought him some as a wedding present ha ha) and nerds (which I haven\’t eaten in well over a decade)!  Along with some party snacks which was very sweet!  Ania also sent me an awesome gift from Poland as I have already mentioned full of handy stuff for my modifications and my favorite candy!  So I did pretty good!  I bought myself some birthday swag at the SAQ so I did pretty damn good if you ask me!

Dinner was simple since I was feeling a tad lazy and well just not well in general but still managed to pull off some awesome pizza!  I made (from scratch) pesto Alfredo pizza w/sun dried tomatoes, extra old cheddar and Parmesan cheese since Donna has a tomato allergy(so tomato sauce was a no no) and classic pepperoni and cheese with my homemade pizza sauce and garlic and cheese bread sticks.  Had it been in the winter I would have made something more hearty but I thought I would keep it simple.  But it was a hit, everyone really enjoyed it and I had a really good time!

So now time for pictures:

My cake:

\"P8270064\"Birthday swag

\"P8270072\"Birthday swag from Ania\"P8050003\"

And my present(s) to myself  which will likely last forever since I don\’t drink that much (really I don\’t) 🙂

\"P8270071\"


I also got news that Carly\’s coming back to Canada for a visit and I can\’t wait to see her!  So that\’s pretty exciting!  I haven\’t seen her since she moved to West Virginia to be with her hubby so its been TOO long!  I\’m also toying with the idea of making a recipe book of my own…  I\’ve debated over it for a  while now and I just might actually do it.  But I don\’t know if I want to share my secrets with the world.


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More tales of FAIL!

UGH, again the whole no good deed goes un-punished would apply to me…  Krystal\’s friend is getting married and I\’m making her veil for her to give to her friend as a gift, fair enough.  I like doing crafty things as such so on Sunday I headed off to fabricville to get the supplies I required.  I hate, hate HATE Place Des arts metro with a passion!  I in all actuality hate the underground city as a whole.  When I leave the metro ALL I want to do is GET OUTSIDE to my chosen destination without having to walk for an hour through shopping centers and malls.   Yeah the concept is cool but the reality of it is a HUGE pain in *MY* ass!  So anyway I get the stuff I need fine, heading to the metro so I can go home and I always somehow manage to get lost in this particular metro same with McGill which I hate with equal passion…  Then I see a sign the says Place D\’armes metro which is on the orange line.

I figure its Sunday I hate transferring lines for one stop and seeing as how Place Des arts is on the green line and Place D\’armes is on the orange line it would make sense for me to take the orange line so I could go straight home.  My tooth was being fussy and I didn\’t want the hassle.  Of course I know that place d\’armes metro takes you to the port/old Montreal but that of course DIDN\’T dawn on me at the time because I am geographically retarded and I was too focused on getting home before John came over.  Now one would THINK that by placing a sign saying such and such a metro in a public area would IMPLY that it was nearby…  Yeah no NOT the case, after trolling through place Des arts, complex Desjardins and then finally coming to Guy Favreau I spotted the metro AN HOUR LATER!  Not nearly as simple as it would IMPLY!  Needless to say I was NOT a happy girl!

However once I was in the port/old Montreal I trekked up to Place Jacques-Cartier to see if my favorite restaurant Le Merville was open since its sadly only seasonal.  I discovered this gem of a restaurant with my mom & family while they were here.  Actually Mary was the one who found it and I generally tend to shy away from most places in the port because they\’re freaking expensive!  Most table d\’hôte\’s START at $50.00 and go up from there as a general rule and a little too classy for me but this place was not only classy, but exceptionally affordable!  When we went there, it was for lunch and I ordered off the days table d\’hôte and had ceasear salad to start which was EXCEPTIONAL and simple fish and chips.  I was in the mood and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was!  Best I had ever had, was light, flaky not greasy and best of all homemade!  I truly meant it when I said my compliments to the Chef who was also kind enough to give me the ingredients to his ceaser dressing 🙂

Anyway the whole point to that is I want to take John there for his birthday dinner.  His birthday was on Monday but sadly i\’m broke until Friday which sucks but c\’est la vie.  So Friday night its dinner and then a hansom cab ride since he\’s never done the horse and carriage bit through the old port which is chesseily romantic and stupid expensice ($40.00/ a half hour $60.00 for the full) and I was hoping to go out on Saturday because they have fireworks but he has to work Sunday morning so that\’s a no go.  Oh well can\’t have it all.

Which brings me to Monday morning hell starting at 2:30 am.  My tooth that has been the baine of my exsistance FOREVER has finally gotten to the point that the pain is out of control!  So John comes over on Sunday for dinner and all is fine and well, I was able to eat properly unlike last week which sent my tooth into dental rage.  So I thought to myself I really need to have this thing removed because it was becomming so problematic but I was impressed that it was being so good to me.  Well 2:30am Monday rolls along and I woke up to the upmost crushing pain I think I have EVER had!  I\’m a tooth grinder more often then not and I think that angered the tooth Gods.

NOTHING helped to ease the pain, I totally over dosed on Advil, I was to the point I was eating it by the handful.  I think I *might* have consumed oh I dunno 30 pills which did NOTHING to ease the pain other then make me sick until about 6am.  Oragel didn\’t do anything but make it worse, mouthwash offered about 5 minutes of relief and so did gnawing on a cold washcloth.  I couldn\’t lie down because that only made it worse, I couldn\’t sleep and it took EVERY once of common sense I had left *NOT* to take my pliers and pull the damn thing out myself!  FINALLY around 6:30 or so after being epically nauseous the pain subsided enough so that I could sleep.  I woke up at 8:36am which is when I\’m \”supposed\” to catch my bus into work  but I was so dizzy and nauseous to the point that I couldn\’t make it out of bed for more then 5 minutes and said screw it and called in sick at 9:30am when I start at 9am.  Ended up sleeping on and off  all  day instead of trying to locate a dentist like I should have or dragging myself to the ER but I lacked the strength required to do so.

So Tuesday as in this morning I get to work and Donna tells me that I am to park my ass in a chair and find a dentist to pull my tooth out today.  Thankfully there was a few cancellations at my regular dentist (not with the useless DR.) and I was able to see him at noon.  I\’ll spare you the details of getting 2 teeth yanked out.  Well really it was only one in theory the other was just residual roots but THEY\”RE GONE!  He looked at my other tooth that Dr. Regina Bastos was supposed to be \”taking care of\” and declared that a waste of time and money and not worth saving so I was pretty pissed about that.  Evidently she\’s nothing more then a money hungry bitch whereas this other Dr. was at least honest and really really nice!  MUCH nicer then her and FAR more competent then she\’ll EVER be!  Not to mention strong, Christ it felt like he was going to take my head off when he was pulling out the problem child tooth.  Anyway so now I have a wad of gauze shoved in my mouth to help soak up the blood, which is making me gag!  It also sucks when I have to change it because it doesn\’t hurt until I have to put a new wad in there but at least it should heal properly.  He put in stitches to help close up the major hole in my gum\’s so I have to bite down on the gauze so that it puts pressure past the stitches which sucks but the pain is minor in comparison to  the absolute sheer hell I have endured on and off for the past 2 years!

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Another Friday come and gone…

Its also a long weekend!  So after work I ran a few errands and decided to go shopping just for the hell of it.  I was really shopping for a new duvet cover *or* flat sheets that were in a color I liked, I of course found neither of them.  Did get some good buys though!  I bought a really warm fuzzy blanket since my cat laid claim to my \”spare\” blanket for when I have guests over.  Also bought myself a new hand mixer since I lost the beaters to mine and it was actually cheaper to buy a new one then replacements!  Then I thought well I need new socks, I tear through socks like no ones business because I\’m on a my feet a lot.  I have cute ones but they\’re made out of acrylic and don\’t breath very well which leads to some epic foot stench on some occasions! So I was poking around the \”intimates\” section when I hit pay dirt! They had Hello kitty panties and I was SO happy! They\’re freaking adorable and I love them 🙂

Funny story about shopping today… I\’m very particular about how things in my home look and the walls of my bedroom are an unusual color. So I thought I found flat sheets that would be suitable to make a duvet cover out of. Its MUCH cheaper to buy 2, sew them together if you have the means of course and make your own as opposed to buying one. I like things that are plain. Anyway I thought I found what I wanted and of course if I make a new duvet cover then I need new pillowcases too lol. My duvet is currently in its natural state but its high maintenance to keep it white all the time and I don\’t bleach it because for one thing it breaks down the fibers and if you ever bleach your whites and notice odd little yellow spots, what most people refer to as \”pit stains\” those are actually protein deposits and its bleach that makes them yellow. So when I wash my duvet I soak it in vinegar, baking soda and a little bit of lemon juice with some water overnight in my tub and then I wash it. Keeps it nice and white that way but it IS a pain to do that all the time so I thought a duvet cover would at least help.

Anyway I noticed someone was \”following\” me. This guy hung out in the same aisles that I did which was mostly bedding because I was trying to find single sheets and not a full set and this store is HORRIFICALLY set up! So I\’m hemming and hawing, debating on this that and the other thing, running back and forth to the price check thing because some of those sheets are SUPER expensive! Anyway I had this stalker and then it dawned on me that it was an undercover \”mall cop\” and let me tell you he was doing a bad job! So I started at the opposite end of the same aisle, then I would grab a bunch of stuff, leave and then move to aisles down and leave it somewhere else. Wait for him to see me empty handed and then grab something else and I kept doing this just for fun. I DO feel bad for whomever is stuck sorting out the shelves later but hey, at least its all in the same dept.!

So I did some miscellaneous browsing and seen the mixer on sale grabbed that, headed of the cleaning aisle and sure enough there was what\’s-his-name. So then I went back to the bedding section to grab said blanket and then left in search of socks, got distracted by shoes because I need a killer pair of heels for a photo shoot and couldn\’t find any that would fit my feet that I liked. My feet are tiny but FAR from dainty! I wish shoe designers would keep that in mind, not everyone\’s foot is like 3\” wide. Anyway all the while there\’s this guy hanging around in the background. That is until I hit the underwear dept and I think everyone must have thought I was nuts because I was like a fat kid on cake when I seen that they FINALLY have HK underwear in Canada that\’s actually made by Sanrino and isn\’t stupid expensive ($5.97/pair in case your wondering) then I headed off to the cash and out I went. Boy was he surprised when the senors/alarm didn\’t go off.
Yeah I\’ll admit that I\’m NOT a fashion plate, ESPECIALLY since I just go off of work, not a purse girl I prefer knapsacks because they\’re far more practical and easier to carry and I look slightly skidly but not THAT bad geez! In any case it amused me for a while 🙂 I was accustomed to getting followed around by security when I was married because Jeff looks SO stereotypical in the sense that he would scream shoplifter more then me lol. I hate to say it, but its true. With the ton of piercings, the visible tattoos, the Mohawk and the punk lifestyle most people assume that your a thief. John said to blame it on my tattoos but you can\’t see any of them when I\’m wearing jeans AND a jacket, they\’re all covered up. Whatever, some people just have REALLY narrow minds!