The Christmas Wrap-Up

I went back to Saskatchewan for Christmas. There were gifts . . . .
I repainted my mom's bathroom cabinet. (My niece helped.)


Two of my sisters bought new netbooks (which I configured).

I hung out with family . . . .
And the dog. (I'm her favourite auntie - but even I can't take her goose away from her.)


And, of course, games (some of which we remembered the rules to).

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays.

In the past week, I've made three trips to Home Depot and three trips to Bulk Barn.

Project #1 was finishing the steps. You may recall that I started them back in the beginning of November. Yes, they're finally done. (Well, OK, I still need to paint the trim, but for all intents and purposes, they're done.)


Project #2 was Christmas gifts for my coworkers. (Also, chocolate sushi for our potluck tomorrow - two of the trips were sushi-related.) I made two different types of soup mixes. The total cost was around $20 for 7 jars of soup (including the cost of the jars).

Christmas shopping

On Saturday, I went to Montreal to go Christmas shopping. This was the trip that was postponed due to illness last week. Wanda and one of her friends went with me.

We walked through the underground malls downtown. We went to Old Montreal and looked through stores there.

I bought lunch ... and a mid-afternoon soft drink.

Yes, that would be a massive failure.

Wednesdays are my free night - I go to the gym, but only to use the machines, so I can do that any time.

I decided to go to the mall first, and then to go to the gym on my way home. I knew pretty much what I wanted to look at, so I figured I'd be done shopping and the gym and be home by 6:30.

I went to Carlingwood (because I have a credit at Sears I wanted to use). I walked through the mall. I went to Sears and actually bought stuff. I walked through the mall again (and bought more).

I looked at my watch. It was 6:30.

I didn't go to the gym.

(But I'm two books away from being done my shopping.)

Make up your own joke here

There is a possibility that I will be going out of town tomorrow, so I decided that I should check the oil in my car today.

In theory, this would be a good thing to do before I go to work, because it's light then and dark when I leave work, but in practice I'm always too late.

Luckily, I park in a parking garage at work. Obviously, the solution is to check the oil after work before going out into the dark, right?

After work, I walked to the car. I put my laptop bag in the trunk. I unlocked the car. I popped the hood.

And ... I couldn't find the dipstick.

Admittedly, it's been a while since I checked the oil.

I stood there for a minute looking foolish, then closed the hood and climbed into the car. I opened the glove compartment and found the owner's manual. I flipped through it and found the diagram of the engine compartment.

I located the dipstick on the drawing, then popped the hood, looked underneath it and ... still couldn't see it.

Fine.

I closed the hood, went back into the car, put everything back in the glove compartment, and started the car.

When I got to the exit, I reached for my badge (which is also my parking pass). It wasn't there.

I looked frantically for it. It was nowhere to be found.

I was blocking the exit, so I pulled over into a parking spot and stopped the car. I checked my jacket pockets, then tossed my jacket in the back seat. I checked the floor of the back seat.

No badge.

I pulled everything out of the area where I normally keep my badge.

No badge.

I pulled everything out of the glove compartment.

No badge.

I reached under the front seat.

No badge.

I opened the trunk.

No badge.

Finally, I got back in the car and drove back to where I'd parked. There was no tell-tale white plastic rectangle on the ground.

I stopped the car and went to get out to go report my badge missing, and ... there on the floor of the front seat was my badge.

That's why it took me a half an hour to leave work today.

And I still haven't checked my oil.