.:shy:.

so ready for the weekend...

this is my 3rd day back from being sick - while i'm definitely much better then i was at the start of the week, i still feel extremely weak.

this is what happens to people like me. we go-go-go and have the amazing strength to hold off on getting sick. as soon as a big moment in our lives has passed, that's when it hits us like a ton of bricks. i've seen this happen to me over and over again.

at the same time, it does give me a good enough excuse to slow down. at least until i'm back to 100%.

so this weekend, we've got some fun family stuff planned.

to start, we're thinking of taking hobbes to an indoor dog park. it does cost us $7 (for the whole family) for 1.5 hrs but it's worth a try. we'll also be having a belated robbie burns day celebration, followed by family movie night.

tonight, we're probably just going to order in pizza and have family game night.

so looking forward to this weekend!

one of the cons of being ill (as if the pros out-weigh the cons)

i've been back to the daily grind after being home sick for 3.5 days.

about five people in the span of just this morning alone, have told me to keep away from them in fear of falling ill themselves.

how comforting.

 

snubbed ubb - day 2

i stayed home again today. feeling a smidge better then yesterday but only got my voice back (sort of ) near the end of the afternoon. both days, i actually had to email my manager to let him know i was still off sick because a voicemail from me would have just sounded like some random squeeky noise.

i got a chance to watch 'the switch' which was definitely a nice movie to take in while one's head is fuzzy (both from the sinus congestion and cold meds). i normally do like jennifer aniston but she wasn't at her best in this movie. no, no - she wasn't bad. just not one of her shining moments. i suppose the spotlight goes more to jason bateman. and even jeff goldblum (though his character was like a lot of past characters he has played - the neurotic, playboy-like friend, trying to talk some sense into the main character - still, very likeable).

it just got me thinking - i'm so happy jason bateman has been having such a better come back. he's come a long way since 'the hogan's family'.

so i am back to work tomorrow.

and i really wish i could have some bailey's irish whiskey right  now - but apparrently, one mustn't mix cold meds with alcohol. damn. it's robbie burns day, too.

snubbed ubb

ugh - my nose is totally stuffed, my sinuses are achy and my throat is a bit phlegmy.

the worse? i had the weekend all to myself - but how did i celebrate this much needed solitude of mine? by getting sick. not ideal at all.

but anyway - i tried to salvage the alone time as best as possible. even though the majority of my weekend was spent in bed.

doug and chaeli had a last minute trip to t-bay to see my in-laws. i chose not to go - work has just been crazy with a lot of overtime. and even if i didn't have to put in some overtime this weekend, i was just completely exhausted.

hobbes stayed with me though. in fact, when i started to come down with this cold, he really stayed with me. for most of sunday, he was glued to the side of my leg. faithful dog - but a little bit of a space hogger.

i managed to at least do two things from my list of me-time things to do:

1. finished watching the final season of the L Word. I was actually really excited that the first episode showed them wheeling away a very dead jenny from bette's and tina's house. unfortunately, i still had to endure the annoying jenny as the rest of the episodes was a built up to the climatic ending. it's not just that jenny is one of those characters you love to hate, but in all honesty, as much as i loved the show as a whole, i wasn't at all convinced that the jenny character was believable enough. perhaps because her persoanlity really went through too many different transformations from season 1 - i felt as if the writers couldn't make up their mind what to do with her. and i also found it really hard that all those other ladies actually stayed her friend for that long. if it were me, i would have kicked her out of my life a lot sooner.
2. watched twilight eclipse. fun and an improvement from the first two movies. but when jacob first makes his appearance in the movie, they did that cheesy soundtrack in the background. that almost killed the whole thing for me. overall, it was entertaining but really, what i'm truly eager for is part I and II of 'breaking dawn'. i have a lot of questions and curiosities of how they are going to illustrate the last book on the big screen.

okay - i'm hoping another night of sleep (good sleep) will allow me to get back to work tomorrow.

and on to the next...

finally.

the christmas decorations are down. funny thing about christmas decor - i love it all the way up until christmas day but then the day after? i'm immediately itching to just take it all down and store it away for another year. i don't miss let alone yearn to keep it up a minute longer.

and now? chinese new year decorations are going up pretty much as we speak.

as for what's been happening lately, it's just been so crazy-busy at work that i don't seem to have energy to do anything else. plus, i'm still trying to shake this cold.

i've finished one full week with my new promotion. strange thing is that now, i'm already thinking about the next step - another promotion or new skills or... something.

i'll be back here hopefully sooner than later to write something better... for now, just checking in.

and now - a hot shower, cold meds and my bed all await me.

 

2011 - happy new year!

what should have been a fun night with friends and then ending with a post-party with family, was just not in the books.

with chaeli's cough not getting better and me waking up feverish and woozy, we decided to cancel all plans and stay in.

and you know what? as much as i was looking forward to hanging out with my friends, it ended up being a great night. there's always the added bonus of not having to change out of one's pj's and being able to watch tv in the comfy setting of one's bedroom.

doug, chaeli and i even planned to do our own countdown (after i napped for the evening) but ended up completely missing it.

why?

we were watching lilo & stitch. after seeing disney on ice on wednesday, doug and i both realized that neither of us have ever seen the movie - and we've all seen pretty much all of disney animated movies. since the rental was on demand, we could have paused it, but we got so caught up in the movie that when i looked over at the clock, it read 12:01am.

oh well. we did pause the movie so doug could get the champagne. and with chaeli and her apple juice we did the fastest 10-second countdown ever.

i think we did it in 3 second. upon chaeli's request to "just do a really quick one."

the movie ended just 30 minutes later and when i tucked chaeli in, i could see her eyes already figting to stay open as she said, "wow. i should be asleep by now. it's very late."

and that's how we, as a family, started our new year.

all the best to all in 2011!

it's hard being lazy

sounds weird, but honestly, i find it exhausting just to try and relax. not that i haven't been relaxing but after 3.5 days of it, my skin was starting to itch. and i'm not even sure if my reference to being lazy constitute as true laziness to others because since monday, on my week off, i still got up at 6:15am to work out every morning.

a recap of this week:

sunday was sheer laziness. as mentioned - it was a day of video games.

monday, we did go see tron and then had dinner at my aunt's place. chaeli baked me a birthday cake with her new easy-bake oven. the cake was split amongst 6 adults and one kid. in other words, we all had a bite-size - more symbolic, really. and you know what? best birthday cake ever! simply because chaeli enjoyed making it for me.

tuesday, i got more into sims 2. i purchased and downloaded three expansion packs as they were all on sale for $15 ea. and each of them actually contained 3 expansion packs in them. other then that, i really can't remember what else i did that day. eat? sleep? poop? not much different from hobbes' schedule. wait - i did do some work in the morning. i suppose that counted as being productive.

wednesday, in the morning, i went grocery shopping. and mid-afternoon, we went to see disney on ice and then out to dinner. my parents came along. it was fun but the coolest part was on the way home. doug took a detour to show them parts of downtown they have not seen in almost a decade. it was interesting to see their excitement - and surprise. they both said that it was like they were seeing a whole different city. my father said that one day, he's going to come down by himself just to walk around and explore the downtown area all over again.

and finally, today. yup, today. today was the breaking point. sure, as you can see, i did get out of the house for some fresh air. but in between the outings, i was mostly in my pj's. and i just couldn't take it anymore.

so after lunch, i cleaned chaeli's room (it was a mess), reorganized it and put her jewelry in her very nice, new jewelry box which she got from my PIL. i'm gearing up to also cleaning up and storing away some of our christmas presents and finally, this weekend, taking down and putting away all our christmas decor except the tree. doug wants it up for one more week so he can enjoy his train set around the tree. he had made a winter village to go below it.

fine, fine - the boy needs his geek-outlet, too. his train set and the village to go with it is like my sims. only i have much more control over my manufacturered people.

anyway - i also did the laundry today and so there's a sense of me that doesn't feel as bad. i'm also not feeling sluggish.

the universe is on route to being normal again.

 

ah midnight bath!

i find it hard to relax when it's been awhile since i've had a long stretch of time to relax. this weekend was one example.

i just couldn't get into the groove. and the crazy thing is that it's now sunday night, i'm about to go to bed, and i'm a little disappointed that i didn't have a chance to clean. crazy.

i did, however, do a very large load of laundry and finish all my christmas wrapping. we did more baking and also decorated the christmas tree. on top of that, i also got chaeli's stuff ready for winter camp.

last night, it was late, but i realized that i had to do something to unwind. so i did what i use to do - a trick that i learned that's proven to be quite relaxing.

a midnight bath.

with candles lit and the lights dimmed down, i drew a hot bath. and then i soaked in it. just thinking about it is making me relaxed all over again.

why midnight? i don't know. it's when everything is done in the house and anything that needs to be done can wait until tomorrow because it's just too late. it's when it's quiet both inside and outside. i suppose it's when i finally get a moment's peace to myself.

anyway - *yawn* - time to get ready for bed.

this upcoming week is going to be brutal.

vinyl cafe, udon and more baking

i's been a really, really, ultra-short weekend. simply because it's been just so much fun that time flew by way too quickly.

chaeli stayed at my parents place for a 2-night sleepover - and i so needed this. a break from motherhood even if just temporary. doug and i did a lot - things we had to do and things we wanted to do. after all, it's all about striking that balance:

• friday night, we went over to my aunt's and uncle's where hobbes was staying during the day. since chaeli and my parents were not joining us this time, we took the opportunity to get some spicy indian food. of course - yum! winter and spicy food (especially if curry is involved) is my comfort food from the cold. sure, sure - i love a mean stew every now and then. but it just doesn't beat some of my favourite spicey foods - indian, west indies, thai, just to name a few.


• i did take saturday morning to do things on my to-do list - p90x cardio-x and cleaning the house. afterwards, though, doug and i got to doing some more baking which we will finish up today and then sort all six kinds into several tins to be handed out this week. feels good to almost be done. as much fun as it was, it does take up a lot of time. i'm not at all sure if we'll be doing this each year. but if we do, i need to try and do it in november and then just put the cookies in the freezer. it's nice to have one less thing to do in december, since preparing for the holiday festivities is already jam-packed as it is.


• we went to see stuart mclean's christmas tour last night and like last year, it was not at all a disappointment. what i love about his stories are that they are not just hiliarious but touching and humble and down-to-earth. they are fictional characters but over the many, many years (close to two decades?) these characters of dave, morley, sam, stephanie and arthur the dog have become so real and so very much part of our lives.


• before heading to the show, doug and i stopped at the grange for some japanese noodles. same place as where we went last time. the service is fast and with our two dishes and two appetizers, the whole meal came out to less then $30 after tax and tip. plus, the piping hot steam coming from the food was like a warm blanket from the winter evening walk.


• hobbes was a great sport. we rarely leave him on his on for more then five hours - if even that! but due to the show starting late and the traffic coming home, he was pretty much on his own for almost eight hours. but he did really well - no accidents and the kitchen wasn't in a mess when we got home (well, his toys were everywhere but that was to be expected).

so we're now off to do a little shopping and to go meet up with my parents and chaeli for some all-u-can eat sushi! hopefully, if the weather does not get too crazy, we'll also be picking up our tree on the way home.

chest pain dialogue

wednesday afternoon, i started to experience some mild chest pains. they would come and go - nothing painful but definitely there. i pretty much knew it was a mild panic attack that was causing this symptom. i could feel it whenever i was struck with stress. but it lasted until thursday afternoon which totally sucked.

anyway, that night, the dialogue went something like this:

me: i'm having chest pains still. i think i'm having a heart attack.

doug: you're not having a heart attack.

me (30 minutes later): i think i'm dying. do you think i'm dying? i could be going into cardiac arrest like right now.

doug: i really don't think so.

me (10 minutes later): man, i'm dying and you don't even care. you could be like... wifeless by the end of tonight! and chaeli would have to grow up without a mother!!!

doug: you're fine.

sometimes i think the only reason i acquired a husband is for the purpose of having some one to bug. just like this.