kettublog

Well, it’s been about 2 months since we moved. The move itself was the single most organized move EVER. My and L’s things were moved in their entirety in about 4.5 hours. N’s things were moved the following day and everything was finished off by early evening. Moving him took a little longer because he spent time helping us pack and move and in doing so lost a day or so of pack-time himself.

But still, the whole move was completely non-traumatic. I still feel obscenely accomplished about the whole thing and it’s been 2 months!

In other news, I dyed my hair back to brown. After about a year of experimentation with hair colour not found in nature, I am ready to return to a slightly more mainstream look. I’m really grateful for my freedom, but it’s time to move on. The only other hair experimentation I’d someday like to be able to try is dreads (my own — not weaves or extensions) and a completely shaved head. For now, though, I’m just letting it grow as long as it wants to. Need to dust it as the split ends are getting a little out of control.

And two other things of newness: I got my Work Permit, which means I can start job hunting. And I’ve been doing yoga nearly every morning for the past three weeks. The habit is nearly established and I’m super proud of myself for being able to stick with it this long. L is also doing a bit of yoga with my tutelage. Go, go asana girl!

I’m sick again.

*pulls hair out*

I’ve really got to be better about the vileness that is sugar. Have too much = come down with whatever is going around. And this time of year, there’s ALWAYS something going around.

*heavy sigh*

I’m all better now. ALL Better. Yay!

On April 1st, we will be moving upstairs from the basement to the 2nd floor, 3-bedroom apartment. Yay!

Past moves have been exasperating and traumatic. This was mainly due to both disorganization and an excess of STUFF. I have since been working with a certain amount of diligence to reduce the amount of STUFF we have. Goodwill and the recycle bin are our bestest friends.

I am determined that this move will be so non-traumatic as to almost be pleasant. We have a month and a half. For the past week, I have been organizing and sorting like a woman possessed. It’s been good for me. As a result, headway is being made and I spend considerably less time sitting in front of the computer, like I’m doing now. For the next two weeks, I will continue to sort, reduce and organize our stuff. I will begin packing at the beginning of March. This WILL happen and it will NOT be horrible. It will be good and needed and wonderful. The entire universe will benefit from our resulting happiness.

Hurrah!

Y’know, I’m thankful for antibiotics because they get rid of bad bacteria that causes nasty infections. However, they bring with them all sorts of irritation. Not only do I have to be extra careful with the birthcontrol for the next couple of weeks or so, but I also have to contend with an overgrowth of candidiasis albicans due to an unfortunate shortage of good bacteria. How horribly uncomfortable it all is.

In short, I cannot WAIT until I’m finished with my antibiotics course. Tuesday night. 4 more doses. And then begins the rest of the healing. Ugh.

I got to see a doctor on Sunday and was prescribed penicillin for the strep. I’m fairly positive I don’t have mono. I’m almost through my third full day of medication and if I had mono, I would have broken out in a rash by now. No rash.

The pain in my throat has diminished considerably. This means I can eat real food again! Yay! I was so starved for real food. I’d been surviving on scrambled eggs and protein smoothies for 3 days and I was going crazy.

The only problem I seem to be having right now is air in my stomach, making me burpy and uncomfortable. Perhaps it’s due to the bacterial duel being waged in my innards. Whatever it is, it sucks.

Yesterday was Election Day au Canada. We actually got N. to vote! Woo! He talked to his mother later in the evening and when she found out he voted, she told him he was maturing. Nah, we’re training him and he’s letting us. I can’t wait until I can vote. I can’t wait until I can work. Hopefully sometime in the next few months.

I am fairly certain I have strep throat. I have no idea if I have mono, as well. I was possibly exposed to it 10 weeks ago and the incubation period for mono is 4-8 weeks, so… I dunno.

Symptoms thus far:
muscle aches
multi-day headache
fatigue, but not pronounced
postnasal drip
MAJOR sore throat with white patches on throat and tonsils
swollen lymph glands/nodes
red, swollen tonsils
fever with a bad bout of chills 2 nights ago
nausea with the occasional dry heave

I bet yer wishin’ you could be me right now.

We’re going to get me to a doctor tomorrow for tests and antibiotics. I really hope it’s just strep and that the antibiotics kick its ass into oblivion.

I am So. Very. Sick. It’s a viral thing, to be sure, because there were aches and headaches and nausea. My fever broke last night. It was awful right before. I couldn’t get warm! I was under 3 blankets, a bathrobe and my hoodie, had the heat in the bedroom turned all the way up (which usually completely stifles me), and had my wool socks on. And I was shivering. For hours.

Eventually, I warmed up. And kept warming up. And got so warm, that the heat had to get turned down, the socks came off, and I was lying on top of the covers. When L came to bed, her feet were ice cold; that was such a wonderful treat!

I had gone to bed at midnight and by 4am, I was finally sleeping soundly. I didn’t get up until 1pm today… and now I have a headache from staying in bed too long! Just can’t win.

So my fever has broken, but my throat. Oh, my throat! It’s horrible! Every time I swallow, a wave of pain shoots through my skull. Ow. It’s all out sore. Not raw or scratchy. SORE. I so sad now.

Just finished editing and uploading some pictures from our trip up North over the holidays. We were visiting L’s mom and stepdad. They’ve a lovely log cabin home nestled in the woods about 7 hours north of Toronto. During the winter, they get a lot of birds, chickadees, mostly, but while I was there I counted six different kinds. I even saw a bluejay swoop down on a mouse! Very weird.

I still have to add titles and descriptions so that people will know what they’re looking at, but that will have to wait a day or two. I’ve been working too long on organizing the albums and categories in the gallery to want to spend even more time there. I need a break.

Also, I was able to sit L down last night, so that we could finish up the winter/thank you cards I’ve been wanting to send out. Now all I have to do is write the cards (I pre-wrote everything I wanted to say on a separate sheet of paper. Perfectionist much?), stick’em in the envelopes, stamp’m and send’em off.

I will feel very accomplished once that’s out of the way. Then all I have to do is knit like mad on a project that needs to go out well before January ends. *sigh* The work is never done… though I suppose that’s a good thing. Boredom kinda sucks.

today was spent doing computer things and non-computer things.

non-computer things: writing out winter/thank you cards, writing down the crazy dream I had this morning, eating poorly (but my tastebuds are happy!), eating well (tastebuds still happy), knitting, and walking Kiska.

computer things: switching kettublog from the k2 theme I had initially to Kubrick, which I found to be a bit more stable, since.. eh.. it’s not a beta! I didn’t like that it wasn’t properly viewable in IE, which many many people use, much to my dismay. I also didn’t like that it was very difficult for me to customize, since I couldn’t make heads or tails of the php script.

Switching themes meant that I had to so something about the ugly blue default header graphic. I missed my birch trees from the MIna [sic] style from k2. Luckily, I found a sweet li’l photoshop template from this guy [scroll down to “Kubrick Headers, Part One”], which made it possible for me to convert the birch.jpg to what you see above. It’s the same image, just sized properly with the nicely rounded corners that weren’t in the initial .jpg. This rocks!

I also changed the colour of the links and fine-tuned the footer message.

I should continue to be productive, but I’ve got so many things I need to do that I can’t decide where to begin! I’m just happy I’m motivated.

I managed to find a workable theme for the kettublog: k2 with MIna style. Ok, I take that back — it’s only partially workable. If you’re browsing with IE (switch to firefox already!), the menu at the left appears below the entries. But that’s your punishment for using IE and not a sensible, non-Microsoft browser. Harumph.

I also uploaded a WebCalendar and have started using that, since my super special Arctic Fox calendar hasn’t arrived yet from amazon.ca. I expect it sometime in the next two weeks…

And I found an extension for Thunderbird that will minimize the program to the systray. Now I can have my email program running all day long without taking up any space on my toolbar. Go, go, email junkie! And yet, all I really get these days is spam. Guess I should write some emails or something.

I really should spend time away from the computer. Oh wait, I am. Tonight is my Nikos night, so no computer tonight or tomorrow morning/afternoon. Good. Maybe I can get Winter cards written and ready to be sent off: January is so boring; no Canadian holidays; really dreary weather — it’s the best time for a card, doncha think? That’s my theory and I’m stickin’ to it!

Tomorrow: winter cards, knitting, reading more from Erich Fromm’s Art of Loving.