When the wall paper really doesn't want to come down

Pro tip of the day - when removing wall paper, try using fabric softener before resorting to scoring it.  I was definitely losing the battle with the wall paper (not the paste, the actual paper) and the paint store lady suggested mixing fabric softener with the hot water.   I didn't have much faith, but it worked brilliantly!   I am pleased to announce we are now wallpaper free.  In a related note - I need to buy more fabric softener ;)

It's been officially two weeks now and have to say it's kinda nice being able to live with my husband :).  Novel concept eh?   I am finding the commute brutal - more so coming home than going in.  But I expect I'll acclimatize soon enough.    We're in, and while there's obviously still a ton to do, I'm pleased with how quickly we're getting stuff done.  I am looking forward to the after pictures ;)

On my way now to the pre-surgery test.  As in am I healthy enough for surgery.  Now in my case there sb no issue, but I do wonder what happens if you fail.  It's not as though said surgery is elective.  Or what if it's even more critical - your appendix burst, but I'm sorry you're not healthy enough for surgery.   Anyways - so be it.   My odds for the next surgery being a success aren't as high as I'd like, so cross your fingers for me!

Still playing with duolingo (need something to do on the train!) but I'm at the point now where I'm finding it insufficient as a primary learning tool.  Suspect it'd be a great support to something else, but on its own, no.  I find I have random questions and it doesn't offer solutions.   Found a FB group that answered the only one I cared enough to actually ask, but I think it's time to actually open the book I bought weeks ago *g*.  Oh come on, you had to know I'd buy one.   Alternately may take an actual course - but not doing that till after surgery.

Off for now!

PS - have to say, new ap I found for writing on my phone is way better!  No way to get around thumb typing, but other than that, all good now :).  Cut and paste into Blogger and done.

Midnight Musings

My husband is snoring and my mind is spinning.  There's not too much I can do about the first issue, but writing generally helps calm the hamster, so here goes :)

Consider yourself forewarned - I  downloaded a blogger ap and am thumb typing this on my phone; I guarantee nothing.

I haven't quite figured out why it's exponentially more difficult to move two people than one, but it most definitely is.  I had tentatively booked the week off work, fully planning to actually work both Thursday and Friday.  Yeah.  That's not happening.

However, we are in the Burlington house.  Woohoo!  We did the final walk through of the Paris house this afternoon; the new buyer gets it tomorrow.      It's been a busy week, but overall all good.  I'm typing this lying on the couch in front of our fireplace -- all kinds of civilized.  

So the day we got the house had an ice storm. Who's surprised by this?  I thought not; you're not new here.

One day I will move during nice weather;
Today is not that day.

What it did highlight for me though was how very unfit I am compared to when I had the school *sigh*.  This move was way more exhausting than that one, with significantly less effort required.  Booo.  Next surgery end of April so having a hard time getting motivated for fitness now that it'll have to end in a month, but after that...  Game on :)

Anyways - have spent the last few days unpacking, organizing, and problem solving.  Which, except for the first step, is pretty much just like going to work ;)

I feel like I actually moved into Ikea though.  Have been spending entirely too much time there and at Walmart.  Here's hoping the next house we're in a financial position not to need to visit either ;)

The kitchen is a fraction the size of our last one -- you know, proportionate to the size of the house ;).  This has made for some interesting unpacking challenges, but fortunately we do have a number of cabinets and I managed to find home for everything.  Well, everything except the food!  I suggested to Chris that we needed somewhere to put groceries before we bought them and through his kijiji powers, we had an armoire by dinner time.  And thanks to Walmart combined with my extensive assembling-cheap-furniture skills, we had shelves and a workable pantry the next day.  That made a huge difference to the usability of the house.

We also bought an oven.  Why?  Well because the house didn't come with one.  So random.  It's here now and actually got used today.  How civilized!   We've also ordered new counter tops because Chris is already missing his granite.  He really did lose a stunning kitchen in the move.   Exciting though -- I get an instant hot water faucet with the new counters.  Woohoo!   Okay, apologies to those who've been reading the blog since it's inception as the definition of "exciting" may have deteriorated somewhat.  Or at very least changes from day to day ;).   Still saving for our trip to Africa -- that'll redefine the word again for the better :)

Let's see, what else...  I discovered today that our official translation of our marriage license (complete with stamps!) is insufficient; I have to get an Ontario translator to translate it.  Can you hear my eyes roll?  Even *my* Spanish (we're talking approximately a month of Duolingo here) is almost sufficient to read it.  Sheesh.  So that was a good waste of a morning.  I will remain with the ambiguousness of two last names for a while yet it seems.  Will likely try again in that 'allowed off the couch but not at work' recovery period after surgery.

Said surgery has a 60% chance of success -- with success being loosely defined as me not needing any more surgery *sigh*.  No commitment or even suggestion as to what, if any, vision I might have at the end of this.  But fingers crossed.  If the other 40% comes to play, it'll mean at least one more cycle of surgery :(

So I'm more awake now than I was when I started typing, but at least the hamster has chilled out a bit.  I feel like switching to some mindlessness on my Kobo for a bit might do the trick.   Tomorrow is all about sitting on hold w various agencies - gas, hydro, town, etc.   Not really how childhood me envisioned adult me spending vacation time but such is reality right?   Hey maybe when I can't sleep tomorrow night I'll actually write a flash :). Ummm don't hold your breath on that one ;-P 

Okay off now.  For real this time.   Sweet dreams.

*edited to add: so the ap selected the wrong photo from my phone, but it worked equally well.  Uploading was a PITA though so methinks I'll go back to the old fashioned way of typing at least for a while...*

Ding, dong, the house is gone...

It's been what one might consider an interesting week...

Let's see.  Friday night we made arrangements to go see seven houses on Saturday morning.  By Saturday morning only four were left.  Of the four, we quite liked two.  One had only just come on the market, and we were pretty sure it'd have a bidding war putting it out of our price range (it did -- ended I think about $50K above asking), the other (which we actually liked better) we decided to put an offer in.

So we met our agent Saturday afternoon to sign off on that, then drove out to meet Kerri and Steve for dinner for Kerri's bday.  Yeah :)   Super good to see them cause, well, that doesn't happen nearly often enough!

Sunday daytime I've already pretty much forgotten, so I feel like we didn't do a ton ;)   We did, however, go for an absolutely lovely dinner with Chris' family for his birthday.  So. Much. Yummy. Food.   Ugh.   Came home in a food coma and did nothing till sleep time.  Sometimes those are actually the best days.

I stayed in Paris on Sunday night because Monday was my brother-in-law's wedding.  Yup, Ted and Hillary got married on leap day :)  Was a really nice ceremony; Hillary was gorgeous and the kids were so excited.  This was followed by - yup - more food.  hahaha  Just seemed to be the weekend for it.   Now all the guys were impressed with the idea that Ted would only have to celebrate an anniversary every four years (why is it a have to for men but a want to for women?   That's a divide I've yet to understand).   But really, you know it's going to be a mini-anniversary on the normal years and a big anniversary on the leap years.   Which  means every four years, he has a big anniversary.  Every four.  Most couples celebrate a big anniversary every five after the first one.  One, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, etc...  But no, now Ted's going to have every four AND likely all the big ones.  And that's when we found out leap day was Hillary's suggestion.  Well played ;)    hahaha and know that I am just teasing -- I actually think that's a very cool date to get married on; I love it when people pick days that have a significance beyond "random Saturday".

Now in the middle of all this, shortly after the deadline (which occurred during the ceremony), we received word the sale of our house had been finalized!   Woohoo!  Not to take away from the wedding, but that news was also pretty exciting - at least for us :)  

Because I figured that might run late, I made arrangements to work from home on Tues as well and stayed in Paris on Monday night.   This ended up being a good thing as the only time we could make work to go see the mortgage person was Tuesday late afternoon.  Getting approval was no problem; deciding the most efficient way of handling our finances, best balance of money to put toward the down payment and not being extraordinarily broke after, and horrifyingly adult decisions about such fun things as insurance -- all of that was what took the time.

So much time that by the time we left, there was a rather impressive blizzard going on.  As such, I decided to stay Tues night as well and work from home on Wed.  Just as well because on Wed our house offer was accepted!   Woohoo!   So after Chris got home from work we signed the small mountain of paper work and it's done.  We now own (or are about to own) a house in Burlington.  Woohoo!  Sadly it's still going to be an hour and a half commute one way *sigh* and the house has a tiny yard (sorry Sash!) -- but other than that I'm super stoked about it.  Will be nice to settle a little, and, well, actually living with my husband is something I've been looking forward to for a while :)

After signing paperwork, I raced home to change into barn gear and then off to teach, where Kennedy and Callie were just so much fun to teach jumping.  Both totally on the ball tonight.  Awesome.  Cold night though.  Brrrrr.   And man do I ever miss riding :(

Now the challenge for tomorrow is to figure out how to write a cheque on a chequing account for which I never actually got any cheques ;)   Seriously, who writes cheques anymore?   But I need to, so that's tomorrow's challenge before meeting up with our Burlington agent to provide said cheque as a deposit for the new house.  Fortunately there is, in fact, a branch in my office building and I feel like they'll be able to resolve that for me at lunch time tomorrow.

Friday I once again relocate back to Paris (3 or 4 weekends left and then no more!!!) so that Saturday we can go back to Burlington to do the house inspection.  Assuming it passes, we'll be good to go.  Close on the new house Easter weekend, and have to be out of ours end of March.

SO excited!  

Intelligence is like a four-wheel drive. It allows you to get stuck in more remote places.

So I've been playing on Duolingo lately and am quite enjoying it.  Some of the completely random sentences amuse me to no end although the vast majority are ones I'd never actually use in real life.   I understand we're working with a completely limited vocabulary, but really -- the odds that I ever need to say "my black cat sleeps on the large monkey" are pretty slim ;)  I kinda roll my eyes and go along with it.

But sometimes, sometimes they get it just right:

Yup, I'm really missing riding these days.  Duolingo and various other random new hobbies mostly just to combat that -- well that, and to increase fitness since the barn has previously *been* my form of fitness.

Ah well -- first world problems right?   ;)

As for Duolingo, there are several things I like about it.   I'm doing a language I've no experience with and it's very intuitive when starting from zero.  Lots of quick wins, and well paced learning.  I love that for the "type what they speak" exercise, it plays at a normal speaking rate, but also has an option of slowing it down to individual words.  Think. Of. Speech. Like. This.   When I understand it on fast, I'm all kinds of proud of myself.  But on slow sometimes I can get it even when I don't really know what's being said -- so that's fun :)

The written exercises -- word matching and text translation are quite good.  When you're wrong, the feedback is useful.  

The speech exercise amuses me -- I have no idea how that engine works and I kinda question it.  For those who haven't played this game, it says a phrase and you repeat the phrase into the microphone.  It then determines whether or not you're close.  But there've been times I didn't even have a clue what they were saying and it was right, and other times I was reasonably confident and it politely suggested I should try it again ;)   I don't do this one nearly as often as I'm usually on the train when I'm playing this game and so I don't want to be talking at my phone.

One thing I'd like to see would be an improved review engine.  It's good at inserting things into short term memory, but the reviewing methodology seems far less developed.  Mosa Linga, which I've also played with, was far better at that.   Sadly though it failed in comparison with everything else.  If Duolingo could just pick up that piece...   It does allow for review though, so there are options -- I just don't know that it's as effective as it could be.    

Anyways -- if you're on, feel free to add me: lhfall -- always looking for motivation :)

Summer in February

Have really been enjoying Facebook "Memories" the last couple weeks -- all about the wedding :)

Annual beach art -- some traditions are worth flying all over the world for.

This year for our anniversary we went to Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic. It was certainly not Costa Rica, but it was warm and sunny. And I came back reasonably refreshed.

Got there reasonably close to on time, it was warm and sunny and Chris got to have a bus beer. All good. The bus itself was of the older variety, but it did get us back to the, thankfully close, hotel. Our guide really didn't say anything on the drive, which C was happy for but I actually missed a little. I like hearing a bit about the places we visit.

Hotel check-in was no problem and our room was lovely. We had a suite, so it was a good size, and it was on the top floor with huge angled ceilings. The balcony was okay -- no view to speak of and uncomfortable chairs, but it was there. Went down to the pool, it was quite small and there weren't very many chairs around it, so we continued our trek to the beach. There we found chairs and made ourselves comfy. We eventually went for a long walk down the beach -- you could go for ages. And way down one direction found a water sport shop that did all kinds of fun activities. The water was warm and just enough waves to have fun in.

Mmmmm sunshine

Overall, not a bad way to spend the day, so we repeated it the next day. An early start, but still all the pool chairs were taken, so we hung out at the beach for the day. This would've been all lovely if not for the semi pushy vendors. They got annoying quickly :( The strawberry slushy wasn't strawberry, but the pina coladas were all the yummy -- so I survived ;) I think Chris had a similar experience forgoing his favourite for the week and substituting others as well.

Pretty sweet place for lunch

Tuesday was our anniversary. Neither of us had slept the night before (the room was right over the laundry and it was *loud*. There were also staff deliveries complete with truck backing up beeps at 6:30 every morning). So since we were up early, we went down and snagged one of the beds by the pool.

All the kinds of civilized

Then went down to the beach and took some lovely sunrise photos before breakfast. That afternoon we went back to the water-sport booth we'd found and went parasailing. It was too windy to go up together so we took turns. So nice. Somehow not at all what I was expecting, but still super enjoyable. Just warm and quiet and stunning views. Amazing.

Awesome

Wednesday we were going snorkeling for the morning. Pickup was at 8:30 -- island time. So shortly before 9, the bus showed up. I use the word "bus" loosely. It was a truck cab, with a trailer of sorts behind it. One bench along either side, so we were sitting sideways. The sides were open -- no windows, all kinds of wind. And a degree of pollution VW would be impressed by.

Chris diving for a photo

The biggest thing on the drive was the amount of garbage. Everywhere. It was fairly appalling. And once we were in town, the children begging any time the vehicle slowed down near a street corner. We got to a dive resort and went to get ready. They were reasonably organized getting us ready and then the first challenge... The stronger of our group pushed the transport boat out over the waves -- we then got to swim out to it, and it then took us to the larger boat. The ride out was really nice. The first area, seemed unlikely for snorkeling and very wavy, but there were several other large boats there. Into the water we went, and while it was very crowded, there were tons of fish to be seen at three different spots. I was actually quite enjoying it, except that I started feeling sea sick. Booo. Have never had that happen actually *in* the water before -- but maybe because unlike diving, snorkeling you bob along with the waves. Anyways -- back on the boat and the trip to the next snorkel site was pretty miserable, but the water there was much calmer and shortly after jumping back in my stomach settled and I was able to enjoy the swim. This site was more coral reef, but still with lots of fish, and the guide picked up a sea urchin and let us hold it, which was very cool. It kinda velcroed itself to you.

There were tons of fish

After that a boat ride back and switch into the little boat taxi to go to the beach. Again we had to jump out of the boat and swim in. This was a fail -- shortly after I could stand I got entirely flattened by a wave. Sommersaulted and bounced my head off the sand. Totally amusing to watch I'm sure but ow. So ow. And sand everywhere. All the unpleasant. Ugh. Then it was a LONG wait -- which would've been annoying, but I was actually grateful to give my stomach time to settle before getting back in the transportation vehicle... Got home a mere two hours after they said we would -- fortunately at this resort food could be found pretty much all the time, so we enjoyed life and then relaxed on the bath for the rest of the day. All kinds of civilized.

Cold water massage

Thursday we'd arranged another outing -- waterfalls this time. Our vehicle reasonably on time this time, and the benches faced forward instead of sideways, but otherwise it was the same quality transportation -- and a much longer drive. Nice though, if you can overlook the garbage, the scenery was very pretty.

Some great views

This adventure was waterfalls -- and it had serious potential. Climb up the mountain, then follow the waterfalls down. As close to canyoning as anything I've seen since Australia. So. Much. Fun. The hike up was okay, scenic enough, and we put ourselves right at the front so as to not get stuck behind those who were either loud and obnoxious or painfully slow. Coming back down was all kinds of fun. Following the river, sliding and jumping down the falls (admittedly not the impressiveness I usually think of when I think waterfalls -- most were only a couple feet tall). Some swimming, one decent jump. All good. I do wish they ran a trip for those who were fit and another for those who prefer a slower pace, mostly cause the few of us who were fast, were freezing waiting endlessly for others to catch up. We met another couple on this trip who were really interesting, so that was cool. Eventually we finished the water and hiked out, and if the tour had ended and we went home then I probably would've been very happy. Instead we had lunch (meh) and then back on the bus. It was raining now, and given the complete lack of windows, this was a poor situation. I was freezing. We also had to do the obligatory stop at the tourist location. This also could have had potential to be interesting, with locals carving petrified wood. However, I really wasn't sure which was more disturbing: the 5 and 6 year old children learning the family trade, or the older children begging by the buses. Once we were back on the bus we were told not to give them anything because there's a serious truancy program with children skipping school to beg. Anyways -- eventually we were back on the bus, freezing and wet, but made it home in time for a warm shower before dinner.

Not nearly as high as the jump we did in Costa Rica, but a lot more natural

Dinner, which was tasty enough, was a fail as several hours later Chris was violently ill. No fun at all, and so obviously we didn't do much the next day. We had talked about kite boarding, but ended up just hanging out on the beach. Saturday was more of the same, and both Chris and I were disappointed to discover our flight was going to be 8h late. It's the only vacation I ever wanted to leave early but no. The next day was raining so we spent it mostly taking cover or hanging out in the lobby. Instead of getting home for Valentine's dinner, we got home about 3:30 the next morning. There were also several issues dealing with Sunwing that left us less than thrilled. Ah well -- better first world problems than third.

So in the end we got sun and relaxation and our anniversary was lovely. All good. Would we go back? Not likely. We've heard Punta Cana is better, so we might consider that some day, but honestly I'd much rather go back to Cuba then Peurta Plata.

Ah well -- I still have a tan and I'm hanging on to it!

Friday Flash #64: The Road Less Travelled

She stood only a few kilometers from the base of the mountain, its peak shrouded in an unnatural mist. It was a mountain she'd never had any interest in seeing from a distance, much less climbing, but now she had no choice. She looked around her, taking in the stunning views and the happily oblivious families playing on the beach. They had no idea of the power that lurked nearby; hopefully they never would.

She took a deep breath and left the beach, finding herself quickly in deep vegetation. She knew of people who could trek through deep forest without ever making a sound. Sadly, she was not one of them. And realistically she figured her presence would be known long before sound would have given her away. She rolled her eyes as another branch snapped and an angry bird cawed loudly.

Humans had so few natural predators, yet somehow still the thought of approaching one in its den triggered long dormant instincts; her legs felt like she was wearing lead shoes, and she could hear her own heartbeat. But she had no choice. It was her fault Callie had been taken. Taken. Not killed. Nobody believed her when she told them that, claiming stress and grief were manipulating her memories. But she knew what she had seen; the dragon had been too gentle, too determined. It hadn't killed her sister; it had kidnapped her.

She muttered under her breath as she ducked under a branch only to walk straight into a cob web. There was no trail; of course there was no trail -- most people had no idea what lived up there and those who did, actively avoided visiting. But somehow it wasn't horribly overgrown either -- as she walked, her feet seemed to find their own path.

All too quickly she reached the low mist. The air hung heavy and her clothes began to sag as they drank the moisture from the air. She paused to catch her breath and became aware of the utter silence surrounding her. The birds, monkeys, and various other woodland critters who had been narrating her hike, were now noticeably missing, as though they too knew better than to risk venturing into the mist.

Welcome Christina, she froze and her eyes widened at the words she felt rather than heard. We have been waiting for you.

She snorted and determinedly continued her hike. After all, realistically if they, whoever they were, wanted her dead, she would be. Only a few moments later, the mist cleared, her limp hair and damp clothing all that reminded her of the humidity that had been.

Christina didn’t know what she’d expected to find. If she’d put any consideration into it, it would have been an arid cavern of some sort – maybe something similar to a volcano. But that was not what she found.

She knew she was staring and her teeth clicked as she consciously closed her mouth. What she saw defied all understanding she possessed. If front of her floated a stunning castle, whose edges shimmered like a mirage. To either side was what looked like giant garages, unfathomably large, and lit by crystals. The whole place oozed wealth and grandeur, but somehow also had a welcoming homey feel.

“Stein!” Christina’s eyes focused on the door as her little sister came tearing out toward her.

“Callie!” She swooped her sister up in a bear hug, “Are you okay?” But she could tell by the grin on her face and the strength in her hug that her sister was fine. “What happened? Actually no, never mind, you can tell me when we get home.”

Callie unwrapped herself and grabbed Christina’s hand, pulling toward the castle. “We can’t go yet. You have to meet Jory! And school is so much more fun here than at home.”

Christina, she held her breath as the powerful feeling overtook her again, Callie will complete her studies here. At which point she may return to your home if she desires. You too have sufficient power to stay and learn – although you are old to be so untrained. Alternately, you may leave unharmed. But know that once you cross the mist, you will have no memory of this place. Choose wisely.

Callie tugged on her hand, imploring her to come, but Christina paused, her mind spinning. She thought of her parents, and the grief they would feel at the apparent loss of another daughter; she thought of the life she would lead if she never knew what had happened to Callie; and then she looked at her sister’s excited face and knew there was no choice. Hoping it wasn’t all an elaborate ruse, she gave one last look through the mist before allowing her little sister to pull her toward the castle and her destiny.

Gold Star to Me!

P90X3 - Complete!   Woohoo!!!   Day 90 is done.

I don't know whether to frame this or burn it.

On top of being done, the last week was a rest week and I just didn't like that idea so I did a few mix and match.  Instead of agility, I subbed in MMX.  For yoga I did Eccentric Upper (I know, no connection whatsoever), and for the first Dynamix I did CVX (flashback: cardio with weights) mostly to see if I could still do it after Eccentric Upper ;)

Today's workout I was not into at all, but I was hardly going to miss day 90.  Sheesh.

Tentative plan is to try the Classic program next.  I'm not as convinced on that one since I'm definitely taking a week off when Chris and I are in Dominican ;)    And it's plausible I'll have another surgery in that 90 days, which'll mean no exercise.  Again.  Ugh.   But at very least, it'll keep things going on the right track until we find ourselves on a beach *g*

As to results and overall view of the program.   I really liked the videos -- they are very well done and  have good timing for corrective comments as well as when to encourage and when to suggest it's okay if you can't quite do it.  The humour is also inoffensive enough that watching the same video several times isn't painful -- which is a real art.   The half-hour time frame is a real motivator -- it'd be very hard to honestly claim you couldn't find half an hour, and even on the worst days I could drag myself to commit to "just 30 minutes" -- which wouldn't happen if I had to go to the gym.   I am getting the results I'd like as far as strength training goes.  However, I found the cardio insufficient -- I do think I'd get better results with more traditional cardio.  It is still a massive step up from sitting on the couch though -- and I have to admit, CVX continues to leave me a sweaty mess in ways that an elliptical never has ;)

So for me who's life currently can't accommodate a gym membership, I'm glad I found it and will continue to use it.  Once the weather's nice though, I'll be back to outdoor cardio activities.   Have to admit though, given how hard it was at the start, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting through it :)  

If my commute time is going to triple, I'd really prefer it happen on the way to work...

You know your commute isn't going to go well when you come in and the entire schedule is red.   Fatality on the tracks at Port Credit.  Frig.   Updates say trains will go to Long Branch and then passengers will be bused to Clarkson, where they can get back on the train for the rest of the trip.  Announcement came in just before 3, saying 3-4 hours before normal service resumes.  Frig.  I was aiming for the 3:43 train.

So that meant one train had already been through since the tracks had been closed.  Okay...   Usually Mum and I sit in the farthest train to the west as that's where we park, but because of this we moved more to the middle of the train thinking it'd put us closer to the station.   We is smart.

Until they announce on the train that anybody getting off at Long Branch (like 99.999% of people, since very few get off in the few stations before that) will want to be at the west end of the train.  Fail.  We decided to stay put -- we had seats and the train was full.   Sure enough, within a few minutes the train was *packed*, standing room only, as everybody was trying to get to the west end of the train.  There was no passing our car.

So all good, away we go.  Then the train stops in the middle of nowhere and we get to just hang out.  About this time I reach out to those I was supposed to teach tonight to give them the heads up the odds aren't great.

Train eventually starts moving and we pull into Long Branch. Which is a *tiny* station.  Impressively said station was immediately next to our car.  For the win!  Out the window we could see the insane line for the buses -- oh yeah, ours wasn't the first train.  Frig.  And the people leaving our train are moving very slowly...   Why?  Because there appears to be only one set of stairs off the platform.

There are announcements that our train will be turning around and going back to Union and could we *please* all stay to one side of the tunnel so people trying to get ON the train could get through.  The announcer was not up to handling the situation at all, so there was a fair amount of confusion, but people were being remarkably patient.

This was about 1/3 of the line.  You can see the one lone bus in the distance...

More of the line...  It actually went all the way out of the parking lot.

So seeing this, I was *very* grateful my amazing dad offered to come pick us up (Mum and I were commuting together due to vehicle issues).   I can't even imagine how long it'd take to get through that line loading all those people onto one bus at a time -- esp as there wasn't a line up of buses.   Usually I'm a pretty patient traveler, but given the current temp and my lack of appropriate clothing, it would've been pretty brutal.  Some cabby's were getting smart and showing up.

They did eventually decide they were going to let some trains through -- but nobody seemed to know which ones or what track.  So the bus line dispersed as all the people who'd gotten off the train went back through the tunnel to get back on.   But Mum and I waited for the nice ride home :)

Had to go back to the GO station to pick up my car, but did eventually make it home, very cold and very late.  Turn on the fire and change into comfy clothes for the rest of the evening.  I sense nothing productive will be happening tonight ;)

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.

Week 11 complete -- you'd think my body would be use to this game by now.  But no.  I'm actually more sore now than I have any recollection of being related to exercise.  Why?   Let's just say it can be summed up as Stupid Should Hurt.   You see, I bought new weights ;)   Which of course encouraged me to up the weights on leg day.  All good, in itself.  But then I bumped yoga day (recovery) to the weekend so that I wouldn't have to relocate exercise equipment.  Sadly this meant I had two leg days in a row.  And I'm back at work, so climbing stairs again.  Right.  It's now Saturday and my quads are *still* sore.

And I was so proud of myself for upping the arms too and not being terribly sore after.  Yeah, it was just delayed *sigh*  So officially every part of me hurts now.   On the plus side, I'm *almost* back to my pre-surgeries weight and I'm starting to be able to see actual muscles.  I have hope for that beach in Feb :)  Which is why, despite the sore, I keep going.

Back at work, which is actually awesome.  Going really well -- all of my projects are picking up momentum at the same time.  Which may mean carefully controlled chaos, but at least it means I won't be bored :)

Off to thoroughly enjoy a day of laziness.  Happy weekend!

Happy New Year

Holidays were good.  Relaxing and exhausting at the same time :)    Christmas Eve was at Barb and Carl's -- a really nice evening.  Then back to Paris for the night.  Both Chris and I were up early on Christmas morn so we did our Christmas first before going to my parents' for breakfast and family gift exchange.  We haven't done the family breakfast thing before -- quite enjoyed that :)   Then it was to Chris' family for dinner, with several people I haven't seen since the wedding so that was nice. Gifts were exchanged and people were happy.   The Elsa doll we got C's niece seemed to be the hit of the night, so that was fun :)  

Boxing Day we inherited Bailey -- Mum and Dad were off to Florida, so we got to puppy sit for the week.  Sasha was pretty thrilled with that whole idea :)   That evening was a 40th bday party for a friend of C's so we went there for the evening.

As to New Year's Eve -- we had an early dinner at Chris' parents before a relaxing evening of nothingness.  We finished it off by going to see Star Wars -- when we left the theater, it was a new year :)  

Overall vacation productiveness -- I managed to get some cleaning and organizing done :)   More importantly, I finally got my wedding photos printed!  Woohoo!!!  :)   hahaha it's the little things in life.

I also got my 2014 blog posts printed in book form.  Pretty stoked about that.  I had previously used Blog2Print, but something changed in either their software or in Bloggers that was making it so all the pictures were misaligned :(   Reaching out to them they informed me there was no way of fixing it.   Fail.  Such began a long search for options.   I found several that would print from the blog, but none that would include photos.   Then I found a few that would include photos, but the layout was all photos on the side of the page, disconnected from the text, and I was not happy with that at all.  One looked promising, but only had the option of printing the *whole* blog, whereas I really just the want the last year.  But then recently I found BlogBooker which will take the blog and publish it to either PDF or Word.  It allows setting the date range, and pictures are included as they are -- exactly what I was looking for.  For a donation, it'll include high res photos.   I could just replace them as I have all the originals, but tbh, I appreciated the software enough I deemed it worth the donation.   Anyways, the PDF was of no use to me, but the Word doc allowed me to fix the layout so I could then publish through any of the multiple self-publishing options.  In this case, I chose LuLu -- and the book I got, I'm very happy with.  It was also a super-reasonable price (esp compared to what I was used to paying for my earlier books).  So I'm downloading 2015 as I type this :)   It was a pretty incredible year; I'd like to have it in book form.  2014 was the shortest blog-book I've had yet.  A significant amount of it was dedicated to wedding planning :)   No surprise there!  2015 has more than twice the number of posts, and I'm hoping 2016 will get back up there too.

While any of you who've read this blog for any amount of time will know I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions -- let's be honest, when I want to change something, I do it.  I'm hardly one to wait around for a new year ;)   But the timing with printing blogs annually did make a pretty solid point about the writing -- I'm sad that I didn't write any flash last year :(   And I find that without the horses, I don't have a steady stream of writing inspiration for reality.  Combine that with a distinct lack of time and I'm left with much thinner blog books than I used to have.  Booo.  A quick scan of 2015 had posts in Feb: wedding and trip -- just the thought makes me smile.   Posts due to the eye surgeries (boo) and posts due to P90X3.   Curious to see what 2016's adventures will be.

As for said P90X3 - Decelerator.  Holy frig.  It contains the third exercise I simply don't have a hope of being able to do (the first being the crow, and the second the standing splits).  This is in push-up position, one knee comes up and balances on the upper arm, and the other leg randomly levitates out.  Yeah no.  Just no.   I can just barely do the modified version (in pushup position, bringing one knee to elbow without the other leg levitating...)  And the rest of it is questionable -- modified pull-ups, when I can barely do regular ones.  Sheesh.  Oh, and all in slow motion of course.

Happy New Year to all :)