Sleepy me

Today I slept in. It was glorious. Last night I was really tired so other than make muffins I just napped and went to bed early. I could still use some more sleep. Healing makes you tired. I keep forgetting that.
I am good and stiff today though and my chest is still a bit stiff form monday. Funny how just 2 weeks off is enough to make you creaky again after a workout :). Ah well - tomorrow will be another workout. I'll be fine I'm sure. It's tough to find exercises that don't push your core...but I think I'm getting it done.
This morning was a nice walk to work. It was 17 already. Didn't even need a coat. Bet it's a warm walk home!
Later taters :)

Whoosh

Busy day. Just logging -this morning I did some leg stuff... 3 x 15 of:
-deep squats
-forward lunges
-backward lunges into a forward kick
-side lunges with toe touch
-deadlift with 16 Lb
Then I walked to work. Now I'm heading home. Much to do!
Bye!

chocolate banana cream cheese icing - oh yeah

nom


It was a busy but fun weekend. The gf banana chocolate cake with chocolate banana cream cheese icing for my brudder's birthday backyard BBQ was a hit and the show friday night was great too. J did great at his visuals and it was a fun night - an all vinyl funk dance party after 2 good local bands started it off. J worked all weekend and made some $$ and feels better about his work again and I got to relax. There was much kitty luv too.





I was gonna go see the Jurassic Park movie with Heather but she ended up having to tend to a sick Xander so that never got to happen. Yeah, the only downside to the weekend was poor little Xander going in the hospital on saturday with a bladder infection (poor little guy - he's such a trooper) - he had a fever and was crying and they couldn't calm him or get the temp. down so they took him in since he is so little and it's good they did. Once they figured out what the problem was and got him on the road to recovery with some antibiotics my friends and their little one were much calmer. He's still in the hospital for another day or so and I will see if I can pop by for a visit today. Heather has been reading aloud to him to pass the time and has kept it up in the hospital... currently it's a Dresden files novel. It's hilarious - she said the nurses walked in yesterday while she was reading a scene involving attacking werewolves and they looked a bit confused, but Xander was cooing and smiling at her voice happily...this guy's gonna be a  proper little nerd oh yes. :)

This morning was just over 2 weeks post surgery so I can get back to some fitness so I dragged my ass out of bed to do my upper body workout and a shwack of squats. Still shouldn't do anything ab intensive, but "regular" non-core related workouts and biking/running are apparently OK again, so I figure I have no excuse. So I did 3 times of the following with 8Lb followed by a nice sunny walk to work:
10 pushups
15 dumbell curls
15 chest presses
15 chest flys
15 tricep extensions
15 bent rows
10 side arm raises
10 front raises
15 side ab raises
20 deep squats

And now, I must stop avoiding things and get to work. Monday mornings are always sloooooooow going. Especially without morning caffeine now. But, it's all good. Today my dad arrives after visiting my sick auntie and we are all going out for supper tonight for my bridder's birthday and fathers day all rolled into one. It's gonna be a good day.
I wish you all a good day too.

Ah. Weekend.

It's friday. thank frog. I've been tired all week and it'll be nice to get to sleep in and relax a bit. J and I have saturday afternoon off together which will be nice - I haven't seen him much lately. Sunday is my big brudder's birthday BBQ and monday is Dad coming to visit for a slightly late father's day, so it'll have some visiting too to even it all out. And more sleep. Yay sleep. I've been tasked with making a chocolate banana gluten free birthday cake. Oh yes. It's on.
Tonight I can go to the first night of the event J is doing visuals at (Mosofest) and dance like a monkey for a bit of moral support and enjoy the local music. I went with him last night to help design, cut and hang some shapes from coroplast to project onto. It's not ideal, but it should work OK. I met the other crew of the event last night and they're all good guys. It's all a bit of a shmozzle, but it should turn out OK in the end...it's just not what it was originally hoped to be. It will have a few bands I enjoy as well as 2 DJs that play funky music so it'll be fun. It'll get hermity me out to see some of my friends and enjoy myself a bit. I finally feel pretty much normal so I figure I'm OK to dance and have a beer.

On the upside, J's submission to the local Nuit Blanche outdoor arts festival was accepted, so that was a bit of a boost for his morale (I just noticed that J and I are walking in the event video on the website from last year at 2:34 on the front left. He hee. He has a hat and I have my "sherlock" cape coat on). We've been joking that now he's now an "official" artist cuz some artists said so...Ooh. Aah. It should be rather neat though. The whole event is a fantastic community event celebrating local art as regular old art, music, dance, performance art, poetry & spoken work, art installations and interactive exhibits in a few outdoor blocks in Saskatoon. Last year was our first year and it was fantastic. J's project for this year involves lasers and glass bricks. It should be neato. :)

As for me? Well I should get back to work from my break. Much to do before the weekend finally welcomes me into it's silky embrace.

Oh you beautiful weekend how I've missed you so....

just the right thing to say

I am frustrated and disheartened for my husband. J has worked hard to get quite skilled at lighting and visuals and laser work and this weekend was supposed to be the first time he got to do a whole stage for a whole weekend of an event doing both lighting and visuals and lasers. A whole stage. He was pumped to finally have a chance to show people his ideas of stage design and what he can do...and when he showed up at the event yesterday to start setting up (for the event that was not very organized and had already changed one night's band listings from country to punk without warning so he had to redo an entire evening of stage design) there was someone else bringing in and setting up lighting. Sooooooo yeah- it turns out he's only doing visuals and lasers for the event. Noone told him this. Ever. Now this isn't a terrible thing - I mean it's still a great opportunity but the overall stage design and being able to really show his stuff is he's been working towards for nearly 6 months... that it has to be so disheartening. He wasted so much time on things people will never get to see. And well, dammit, it's really good. Working freelance puts you at the whims of others and I'd love so much for him to be able to show off what he's doing to a larger group of people. He is really good at this and I supported him to quit his day job to try and make a go of it on his own. Everyone should get to chase their dreams. He's trying to be positive and still do his best...but it won't be as grand as what he'd hoped and won't be the exposure he was hoping for in the same way... this has got to be so incredibly frustrating. I mean, even if he were to bring it up with the organizers at this point it won't change anything for the event now...so why bother? He'd just sound petty....sometimes being in a smaller city is frustrating. There's not a tonne of work to get so you have to suck it up and be at the whim of the organisers and hope for the best. For some things it's good. Others...not so much.

 Later today: It gets better...he has learned that they are not providing any sort of surface for him to project onto although they were promised up until yesterday. Also any walls or flat areas that he could project onto have been turned into displays... he has some pre-built objects the event tech thinks they are too large to be on stage with the bands. So yeah - 24 hours prior to the show he also has to design and build some shapes and other hanging objects, mount them somehow and video map them in time to project onto them. I hope the video will look good on them. I just can't believe how unorganized and unprofessional this whole experience has been. He will make the best of it, I know, but....
Clown shoes. All of them.


All this for a wonderful man who supports me through everything and deserves so much more. He said something really sweet the other day. We were talking late and I was frustrated that I will have scars on my stomach along with my other scar and we were chatting about that and how I still have recon surgery coming up in the fall and that I'd just like to jump to spring and be done it all thank you very much. He called me his beautiful battle scarred warrior and told me not to worry - it'll all work itself out in time and I'll still be me.

I wish I could say something equally lovely for him.

Love that man.

I tried to cheer myself by making an new supper while J was working - vegetarian shepherd's pie...it was really delicious with a bit of cheese on top and using fresh thyme from my little herby shrub. I watched a creepy movie and snacked with the cats...but still meh. Here's looking forward to the weekend. The first show J is working at on friday shoudl be a very good show and I'm looking forward to it despite it all...

Crazy Aunt training

Well it's been a good week so far. I'm off the fancy shmancy pain meds and just on the odd advil and I've felt good enough to walk to work and back home yesterday and today, so I'm taking that as a good sign. I tried to get up this morning to do some upper body work but my comfy bed had me stay...I figured I needed rest so I'll try again tomorrow.
I got to go visit my bestie Heather last night and hang out with her and her husband and little Xander. He's such a tiny guy, but they're all doing pretty well. After a few weeks they've actually gotten a bit of sleep and were up to some company so it was good to hang out and catch up and ogle after little Xander. He's such a cute little guy.  He's almost 7 Lbs now. He's getting those chubby cheeks. Hee hee.


Xander the Cute


I got a bit wistful spending time with Xander...a bit sulky coming to terms again that there will be no little Max or Alice for us ever...but you know it's  really OK. I just plan on being the best "Auntie" I can be for Xander :) Perhaps I'll become even more of a crazy cat person. Who knows. All I know is this kid has so many people who love him so much already that he's bound to be a good guy. :)
I must be off. It's the "everything break in the lab" week so I have lots of warranty people to fight with. And because it's all lab related it's 5 times the price for no reason. Ah well, this is why they pay me.
Later taters...

3! 3 holes! Ah ah ah!

Well it's been just over a week since my surgery. I'm quite happy to say it all went very well and I just have 3 little holes in mah belly that are healing up quite well. I wish that one of them was further off to the side. I do love my stomach and was hoping not to have any really visible scars, but oh well…. the one longest one (about 1 inch long - the other are about 1/4 inch long) is in my bellybutton so you can't really see it at all and the other is down by my hip so it's not too bad really. Considering what they could all do and how little of a mark it left I am quite amazed.
Again I was fine after the anaesthetic and other than the morphine making me want to sing a lot I was home after a few hours and feeling quite good - no issues form the gas they put into you for the surgery. I keep imagining in my head "what if my ovaries are now free floating and they start moving around in there?" - yeah I know that's not true…but if I can't see it…how can I be sure! He hee. Truth be told I really am glad it went so well. As of today I'm pretty much back to normal as far as how I can move and sit and what I can wear, although my tummy is still a bit puffy and I still need to take it easy exercise wise and hold off for at least another week to make sure things finish healing up well. I got to recover form the worst of it (which really wasn't that bad at all) up at my Dad's at the lake and visit with him and my sister and her husband. It was fantastic to relax and visit. We stopped by my mum's grave on the way up too which was nice.
After a week back at work I'm settling back into things. Feeling good enough that my brother and I dug up his raised garden beds today and mixed in some diaper gel and planted our garden for the year-it sounds weird I know but if you take the insides of diapers out and rip them up and moisten them they can be worked into potting soil to hugely increase soil's ability to retain water and they're completely safe…like squishy vermiculite. I've not done it in a garden before but we're gonna see if it makes the veggies happier in the raised beds by retaining water since last year they really dried out. We hit a greenhouse and picked up some squash, cucumbers, melons and a few kinds of tomatoes and then laid out rows of seeds of carrots, onions, spinach and basil along with some herbs that we tucked into a few smaller pots. We put a few flowers in there too that are supposed to help keep the bugs down...I even have small pots of mint, thyme, basil and chives that I brought home and my SIL has all those plus some oregano and lavender at her place for her. I have to find places for the herbs where Dax won't eat them, but I think I can make it work. Man, I do love gardening. :) Today was fun -we just hung out all day today since J was working all day (doing lighting and sound for one of the local Pride Week events) and then had pancakes and bacon for supper - a great day.
my pot of thyme

Ze garden

Now, since I had a bunch of tea at my brudders too late I am wired for sound accidentally so I'm off to watch a girly movie with the cats. I have to pick up J when he's done tonight at about 4 am so I'll do my best to amuse myself until then. I have a few books…and snacky cakes...and a glass of gwertz...so life is indeed good even if Netflix has nothing cheesy to offer me for entertainment.
I hope you all have had a fantastic week! Later taters... :)

perogie kebabs are my new favourite thing

After an evening of mint julips and raspberry wheat beer with barbecued skewers of marinated apples, pears, pineapples, chicken, pork, veggies and even perogies along with salads and homemade  salted caramel ice cream (with whiskey maple syrup for good measure) -an evening of good company and some good music playing in the back yard - everything came to a happy close. The few of us left after the potluck sat around the patio table in the back yard and sipped at the last of the beer while Joe plucked away at random tunes on his banjo and we all chatted lazily, laughed and finally said goodnight to the day. It was a proper welcome back to our good friend Jesse and a great summer evening. The bugs aren't out yet so we could relax and wander in and out of the house and really enjoy the summer evening. It was a great gathering.
Our house really is set up to entertain and it was great to have people over. There is the added bonus of us actually cleaning the house up all spic and span for having people over - the house hasn't been this clean in eons. It's really rather gloriously organized...now we just have to keep working to keep it up for a while. There are advantages to not being a hermit - a vaguely organised house is one of them :) I also attacked the yard on friday and saturday so the back grass and alley are all trimmed up and I pulled a ridiculous amount of weeds from the yard so the vines are now growing in nicely in the front yard. You'd think adults lived here! (shhh....don't tell anyone).

I'm a bit tired from being up late, but I am so glad to have weekends like this. This is what summer is for. This is what life is for.
:)

This morning I crawled out of bed to do the intermediate/day 2 of the 30 Day Shred and have walked in to see what work has for me for the day. I was feeling wistful - yesterday was the Saskatchewan half marathon here in town and a few of my friends at the gathering had run it sunday morning and it got me thinking about how much I love running...perhaps I will do more of it. We'll see. My knee is happy at the moment. I'm just glad to be as active as I can be again.

Well - Here goes another great week! Cheers :)