I took today off.

I can't remember the last time I took a day off for no particular reason - no guests, no travel plans, just a day spent at home. Sure, I've been unemployed, but that's not the same thing.

It was a beautiful, sunny day. Since it's Monday (BodyPump day), I looked for classes earlier than my usual 5:30 class. (Let's face it, if I had waited, there was no way I would have made it.) I'd expected there to be a 9:30 class, but they appear to have moved to 10:30.

Before the class, I loaded up the car with various clothes & household objects to give away. I dropped off the old computer at BestBuy for recycling, then went to the gym.

After the gym, I dragged Wanda along to drop off the rest of the stuff, then we went for lunch.

Lunch was good, but I may never eat again. It's five hours later and I'm still full.

This afternoon was a mixture of lying outside reading a book, taking a nap, and playing wii. It was lovely.

I even got motivated to do some gardening this evening, which resulted in the discovery that I'm allergic to more than one type of evergreen in my yard. Somehow, my hands reacted even though I was wearing gardening gloves the whole time. Luckily, thoroughly washing my hands and arms with soap and water stops the reaction.

Still, it was a really nice day ... even if I have to go back to work tomorrow.

The ides of June?

Boxing was great this week. It was week 8 - last week of the session -and we did a ridiculous class of 8 stations followed by 8 punch outs. I was hitting hard, and I left feeling fantastic.

Before I went to sleep, I turned off my laptop. I don't do that every day - usually it's once or twice a week - but it seemed like time.

Little did I know that things would take a turn for the worse on Thursday.

I woke up and went to read my e-mail, and ... my laptop was installing update 15 of 19. That's right, it hadn't finished turning itself off.

I left it alone and went to work. It was annoying, but I could deal with a computer problem since I was in such a good mood from boxing.

I went to leave work and discovered that it hurt when I separated two of the fingers on my right hand.

As I often do when I discover I've hurt myself, I went to the gym. It didn't make it worse, but it didn't make it better.

I got home, and my laptop had turned itself off. I turned it on, and discovered it would no longer connect to the internet. I fiddled around with it a while and then gave up. (That's right, I went an entire day without Facebook or Twitter.)

When I woke up this morning, I had forgotten all about my hand hurting. I got in the car to drive to work and discovered it hadn't gone away. (Apparently, I like to drive with 2 fingers on top of the steering wheel and two fingers curled underneath.)

I got to work, and it hurt to use the mouse, so I moved it to the left side. I called my doctor - it turns off she was off today.

All day I debated whether to go to Emergency at the hospital or to a walk-in clinic. I decided to go to Emergency. I got to the Queensway-Carleton at 5:15. I checked in with the desk and sat down to wait. After 5 or 10 minutes, the triage nurse called me up and did her thing.

I sat down to wait again.

After another 5 minutes or so, I got called up to registration.

The Queensway-Carleton has a FastTrack program. I don't know the official details, but it seems to be a program for people who need (or might need) x-rays. I ended up in that program and was sent down to that waiting room.

Again, I sat around for 10 minutes or so, then they sent me to get an x-ray.

By now, I'm sure you know the drill - 5 or 10 minutes of waiting, then the three x-rays. After that, it was back to the FastTrack waiting room.

There were several other people making the same journey through the hospital, and we chatted about the experience (all of us agreeing that it's a great program). This time, I think I had to wait 15 minutes. The doctor did a physical exam of my arm, checked my x-rays (which didn't show a fracture), and I was on my way. I was out of the hospital at 7.

When I turned on my cell phone again, I got a text from Wanda telling me she had managed to get on the internet on my laptop.

Yup, still alive

I'm not going to talk about Sparks camp (last weekend, Fairy Tales & Monsters theme, big success, very tiring, forgot stuff at the camp & had to go back to get it).

I'm not going to talk about the bird whose nest is in my cedar bush (and thus who eyes me suspiciously every time I walk to my front door).

I'm not going to talk about boxing (had the option of moving to level 5 but opted to stay in level 4, signed up for the summer session).

Instead, I'm going to tell you about my Air Miles card.

A few weeks ago, I noticed it was missing. I didn't think too much of it - I just figured it fell out of my card-carrying wallet and into my purse.

After a couple of weeks, I actually cleaned out my purse. No luck. I vaguely thought "I should call and get a new one", and then I ... didn't.

Today I dropped something down the side of my comfy living room chair. I reached down to get it, and my first thought was "hey, there's a card down here!" My second thought was "Ew!!!"

I dug around and discovered three cards that had fallen out of my card wallet (including my Rogers card that I haven't used since the year 2000).

When I'd retrieved all the cards, I went and got the vacuum and started vacuuming.

Despite the fact that I vacuumed last night, I saw a few other places that needed vacuuming and went to work and ... somehow I managed to vacuum up a Subway bag.

Naturally, it got stuck in the vacuum hose.

I detached the metal end of the hose and looked through it. It wasn't stuck there.

I detached both ends of the flexible part of the hose. Now, I couldn't just look through this part of the hose because both ends have a hard plastic angled piece.

Not only could I not see through the hose, I also couldn't use a broom to dislodge the bag because the hard plastic pieces were angled just enough to prevent it.

I needed something that was heavy and small. I found a battery and tried that.

It got stuck in the plastic bag.

Great. Obviously, I needed something both heavy and and flexible.

I went down to the furnace room in the basement and found a chain hanging on the wall. It's one of those things that was here when I moved in, and I just never got rid of it. I threaded the chain into the vacuum hose (which made the hose heavy) and ... it got stuck.

Luckily, gravity is my friend. I jiggled the hose until I could feel the chain move down to the bottom. By that point, I could see the bag, so I used a pliers to pull it out.

The chain was stuck, but a little more jiggling made it slither out onto the floor.

And that's how I found my Air Miles card.

The Goldilocks of Cross-Trainers

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to need new cross-trainers for boxing soon.

That day has arrived.

Well, actually, it arrived 5 weeks ago on week 1 of the current boxing session. (Tonight was week 6.)

Before week 2, I went and tried on a bunch of shoes and bought a pair. I wore them for week 2. By the end of the night, my feet were fiery bricks at the end of my legs.

Those shoes went back and I bought another pair. I wore them for week 3. They were OK. I wore them again week 4 and decided they didn't fit quite right. Back they went.

That weekend, I bought 2 pairs of shoes. I wore the first one to the gym ... not quite right. I wore the second one to boxing week 5 and ... they weren't too bad.

I wore them again today, and I think they'll do. It's an incredibly enthusiastic endorsement, I know.

I really should have bought 2 pairs of the style I had last time.