The ick is going around

There's some sort of flu going around work.

Well, maybe more than one.

People are dropping like flies (although without the annoying buzzing around  your head first). I've asked if I can order a giant bubble to work in so that I don't get whatever they have, but apparently there's no budget for a giant plastic bubble.

Of course, people get sick all the time, but this one is knocking people out for much longer than usual.  One of my former coworkers was off for 3 days.  I've known her for 3 years, and I don't think she's missed 3 days in total during that time.

I do not want whatever they have.

I can't be sick next week (cyst removal, doctor's appointment that's already been rescheduled twice, Pathfinder sleepover).  Two of those things I'll be at regardless of how sick I am, but it would be nice if I wasn't sick at all.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's an option.

Last week was extremely cold here in Ottawa - the kind of cold where it's hard to scrape the car windows because there's so little moisture in the frost. I actually plugged in the car for 3 or 4 nights in a row - and there are years where I don't plug in the car at all.

It started warming up on Friday, and the weekend was much nicer. I even went cross-country skiing this morning.

(I tried to talk myself out of it on the grounds that we haven't had any fresh snow in a while, but ... this is Ottawa. It's either too cold or so warm it's melting or there has been no snow since we last got freezing rain. You have to take your opportunities where you find them.)

While I was on my way to the park, I ran into one of my neighbours walking their two dogs.

Now, I know these dogs. I see them all the time, and when I go over to their house, the dogs are thrilled to see me.  In fact, Oliver immediately goes to get his tennis ball so I can throw it for him.

But for some reason, when I see them outside of their house, Oliver barks like crazy at me. He's even been known to run from his house to my house when I'm outside just so he can bark at me.

It's ... well, it's pretty funny, actually.

So when the dogs saw me, naturally they had to come over to bark at me. As always, I offered to pet them, but they were far too excited for that, so I continued on my way while they got distracted by a piece of garbage.

I got my skis on and started on my way.  The snow was pretty dry, and it actually made for quite an easy ski.  I skied to the end of the park and back and then walked home.

Next week I might even venture out on an actual ski trail.

Year in review

 Well, it's getting a little late to do this, but ... I didn't do it earlier, so here we are.

Here are my 2012 resolutions:

1. Be employed for at least 10 months of the year: Done. 12months, actually. Yay!
2. Come up with a workable, challenging exercise schedule. Done. I'd actually forgotten about this one, but it happened when I moved from contract to full tie & got access to the gym at work. And anyone who saw me Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday of last week would have to agree that the schedule is challenging - I was so sore. I could barely walk. It was embarassing.
3. Reconsider home phone service, reduce the monthly cost. Another one I forgot about.  It's half done - I reduced the cost, but I still think I'm paying too much.
4. Increase my emergency fund by $8000. Done. And then the car needed repairs. Sigh.
5. Organize/clean the sewing/Sparks room.This is another half done one - it's a lot better, but there's still work to do.

 I don't really have a solid list for this year. I'd like to make it out cross-country skiing at least once. I'd like to go skating on the canal. I'd like to spend a week at the lake. I'm not really ready to make a real list, though.

I need a nap

I got up crazy early on Monday. (3:45, to be specific). I didn't have a choice - I had a flight at 6:30.

You know what's not a good idea? Flying to the US early in the morning the Monday of the week after New Year's. There were crazy lines of people going everywhere - but mostly, I suspect, somewhere warm.

I made it through the lines, though, and after breakfast in Dulles, landed in San Francisco around noon.

(Of course, noon in San Francisco is 3 here, so it had already been a long day.)

I took a car to San Jose, checked into the hotel, and went in to the office.

I was there for 3 hours, and by the time I left, I was starving.  My colleagues and I went and got dinner, and then I went back to the hotel and collapsed.

(After checking Twitter and Facebook, of course. I wasn't living in the dark ages.)

At 4 a.m., I woke up. I really would have liked to have slept more, but my brain decided to do it's overactive puppy imitation. (You know what we should do? We should get up! It's morning, you know! Let's get up and see if the internet is still there! Let's get up!)

I got up.

I'd ordered room service (which was insanely expensive, but work was paying for it), and it showed up promptly at 6:30. I have to say, my bagel and cream cheese was extremely well presented - the bagel was wrapped in a napkin, the cream cheese was on the plate, there was butter and jam, and the glass of orange juice was sitting in a container of ice - but it wasn't worth the $20+ it cost. Except that it was, because I needed breakfast.

Look, it's sunlight

We went in to work at 7:30, and left again at 7:30.  It looked beautiful out, but all-day meetings don't leave much time for enjoying the weather.

When we finally got back to the hotel, one of my colleagues and I went for a walk. We explored the area around the hotel, and eventually ended up walking by the outdoor skating rink beside the hotel. The ice was ... not good, but there were tons of people for a Tuesday night, and they all seemed to be having fun.

The skating rink

 Wednesday was a little shorter - the meeting started at 9:15 and ended not long after 4, so my colleague and I were able to walk around a little in daylight. We made it to the university (where we'd been the night before) and then stumbled across city hall.

A bunch of us then went out for dinner, then it was time to go back to my room to pack.

Thursday morning, I left for the airport at 3:30. After an extremely disorganized check-in process (which wasn't helped by it being not long after 4), I took my 5.5 hour long flight to Philadelphia, then a shorter 1.5 hour long flight to Ottawa. When we started descending, I looked out the window and thought "Hmm, wonder what river that is".  Then I turned my head to the left and noticed it ended in a giant lake, and thus had to be the St. Lawrence.

After another long day (on which I saw the sun both rise and set from a plane), I made it home by a little after 6.

Remind me not to do that again for a while.

Going in circles

Today at work, one of my coworkers was talking about some problems she was having with her TV, and her dilemma about whether to buy a new one - new TVs have more features, but she doesn't want to spend the money.

And I said, "I know what you mean, I have no intentions of buying a new TV anytime soon."

So tonight, I thought to myself, "Hey, I can put off going through the mail by watching the Big Bang Theory", and I tried to turn on the TV.

Nothing happened.

I pressed the "TV" button on the remote and tried again.

Still nothing.

I walked over to the TV, noticed that nothing had any lights on (TV, Wii, DVR, stereo), and pressed the on/off switch on the power bar on the theory that taking down the Christmas lights had resulted in me turning it off by accident.

Still nothing.

I thought "Hmm, the power bar is dead."

A little later, I remembered that there was a light plugged in to that outlet, so I walked over to turn it on - but it wasn't there, because it's only there when the Christmas decorations are up, and I took them down last night.

I went back to planning to replace the power bar.

A little later, I thought, "Hey, I thought something was plugged directly into the wall, but there's no lights on anything. It's like the outlet itself is dead. That'll be a pain if that's the problem."

It took me a little while to remember that the outlet is on a light switch - and that I had a house sitter for the past two weeks who might have disregarded the massive quantity of tape on the switch. I walked across the room and turned the switch back no.

Still nothing.

And then I remembered that I'd "turned on" the power bar. I flipped the switch again and lights came on.

But I'm still scared to try the TV.

Christmas wrap up

This is normally my resolution post - how did I do on last year's resolutions, what do I want to do this year - but my flight was delayed for 2 hours in Toronto, and I'm too lazy to do that.

In an effort to look like I'm actually updating this blog on occasion, here are some pictures of my Christmas sewing projects:

Fleece hoodie, fleece overalls

 

Fleece vest, pajama pants

Nightgown, pajama pants

While I was gone, I went out to my cousin's farm:

(I know nothing about anyone snow tubing behind the truck.)

I took my niece & my cousin's daughter shopping for gifts for their moms:

No one got giraffe sunglasses for Christmas. But they were fun to try on..

I went to the Tunnels of Moose Jaw:

Outside the tunnels

I took my niece sledding and brought the dog:

Not sure whether this was the best day in the dog's life, or complete torture

And here are some things my niece said to or about me while I was there:

• "When I grow up, I want to be like my mommy. She knows how to drive."
• "Auntie Colette, I can skate faster than you can drive."
• "When you leave, you have to leave all the people, animals, and stuffies that were here before."
• (via text message) "If this is Auntie Colette all I read was bla bla bla."
• "Grandma, you're still Auntie Colette's mom, so if she tries to boss you around, send her to her room and say no electronics."
• (when I threatened to bring her back to Ottawa) "I know you only bought 2 plane tickets. You didn't think I'd outsmart you, did you?"
• (in response to "Who's your favourite auntie?") "Auntie Wanda. I have to be honest."

I hope all of you enjoyed the holidays.

Now if only I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow ....