Given my energy level, I have gotten little to nothing done around the house in the last few months. I'm usually very list driven and have had to give them up entirely because it's just been too depressing to mark 1 measly item off of a list of 20. But, this weekend was going to be a different story.
Friday night, we headed up to NH. After a few months of trying to get a decision made and an appointment scheduled, we were finally going to get the plumber and the electrician to our NH condo to install a new tankless water heater. It was supposed to be bitterly cold on Saturday so we had already planned to head back to MA after they wrapped up. Being stuck inside at our house (in MA) has far more options of fun then being stuck indoors in NH where our primary source of enjoyment is what can be done outside. I had no idea how cold it would be though.
Saturday when I woke up, I checked my iphone for the temperature. It read -22! Again, that's Fahrenheit! I thought that couldn't possibly be right so I asked the plumber, when he arrived at 8am, if it was truly that cold outside. He reported that the bank thermometer (right by the highway exit near our place) had read -25 degrees! Wow! Now that's cold! The electrician showed up soon thereafter and they got to work. In addition to the new hot water heater, the plumber removed the leaky faucets from both of our bathroom sinks and installed new ones. The electrician also installed a more accurate and efficient thermostat in the condo as well. Even though I didn't do much but answer a question now and then, I felt like it was a very productive day! They finished up around noon and we then packed up and headed back to MA. It was a leisurely afternoon. Saturday night, our friend Tamara came over and kept us company while we made pizza and then watched a movie.
Sunday, I broke my rule and made a list. I figured I had 2 full days at home and my energy level seems to be coming up a bit (at least in the waking moments...I still need a lot of sleep at night) so I thought I would be back to the old me and get tons done. One of the big projects I got done (while Mike was taking care of the 8 inches of snow we got overnight Saturday and all Sunday morning) was to pack up and say good-bye to all of my "skinny" clothes and go through my reserves of, hmmm-mmm, larger sized clothes I had kept from previous years. After trying on tons of stuff, I did find a few things that would help me get through this awkward period of not fitting into my "regular" clothes but not quite ready for full blown maternity clothes. But, it was a very exhausting project and I had to take a little break afterwards. Other than a few other minor things crossed off on the list, there was still a lot left to do. Thanks to MLK Day, though, I still had a full day to get to some of those items!
Monday morning, I started off the day right with a little workout. While I was doing that, Mike was out on snow removal duty again....another 4 inches overnight! My sis-in-law, Kristina, and her family showed up a little later. The boys where staying and hanging out with Mike and she and I were hitting the stores. So, we set out in the car. After not leaving the house on Sunday, I was really surprised to see how much freakin' snow was everywhere!
Anyway, the goal of the day was to start collecting some basic pregnancy clothes. With Kristina's help, it was a great success! Not only did I find a few tops, but I also found jeans AND khakis!! I never have luck with those two items and have a difficult enough time finding good pairs when I'm not pregnant so I was thrilled to have found them. After our shopping trip, they headed back to Providence and Mike and I both rested (those young kids pooped him out). Monday evening I got to hang out with two of my good friends, Jenn and Kari, whom, due to conflicting schedules, big life changes for all 3 of us and snowstorms, I hadn't seen in a couple of months. It was so great to get to see them and catch up a bit. Alas, no more items on my list were crossed off. Sigh. I suppose I'll try and cross a few more off next weekend!
1/16/09
BRRRRR!!!!!
When I started my car this morning, my shady driveway registered 3 degrees. No, I didn't inadvertently changed the read out to Celsius, that was 3 degrees Fahrenheit! Yikes! While Boston isn't exactly known for it's tropical climate, this is definitely severely cold for us.
I VERY quickly scraped the ice crystals off my windshield and headed off to work. My car does not like this frigid cold and just doesn't function quite right...can't say that I blame it! Of course, about the time I do my quick 15 minute commute to work, the sun is just getting up in the sky and really starting to do it's thing. So, by the time I hit the parking lot, it had warmed to a balmy 7!
Needless to say, the guys are not working outdoors on my retaining wall today, and I'm very happy to be spending the day indoors! Happy Friday everyone!
I VERY quickly scraped the ice crystals off my windshield and headed off to work. My car does not like this frigid cold and just doesn't function quite right...can't say that I blame it! Of course, about the time I do my quick 15 minute commute to work, the sun is just getting up in the sky and really starting to do it's thing. So, by the time I hit the parking lot, it had warmed to a balmy 7!
Needless to say, the guys are not working outdoors on my retaining wall today, and I'm very happy to be spending the day indoors! Happy Friday everyone!
1/12/09
A Snow Full Weekend
Wahoo for NH and mini getaways! It's been almost 2 months since we last were able to get up to our condo in the white mountains...by far the longest stretch away from there since we bought the place almost 2 years ago. So, it was really great to finally not have any weekend holiday commitments and be able to make the 2 hour trip.
We decided to go skiing on Saturday. According to everyone I spoke to about it, they thought I was a complete idiot for even considering doing such a "dangerous" and "risky" activity while pregnant. Honestly, I didn't (and still don't) see the big deal. I ski all the time and it's something I'm very comfortable with, know my limits and enjoy immensely. So, before I got too big and off balance, I wanted to go at least once this season. However, I knew I wouldn't be able to last all day...actually, had no idea how long I would last at all...so we decided to do buy one of the half-day passes (noon to close) on one of the smaller (ie cheaper) mountains.
Saturday morning, we got up, had a leisurely breakfast and then started packing up. The first ski trip of the season always takes forever to figure out what we need and get everything together. During that process, I started getting really nervous about my decision to go. All those folks telling me it was horrible idea paired with the fact that we were going to a mountain I had only been to once 7 years ago and am completely unfamiliar with got to me. But, I muscled up some courage and went anyway.
Boy am I glad I did! It was great to be on the slopes again and we had a great time. It was a nice little mountain and hardly anyone was there so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. However, it was a VERY cold day and the ski lift to the top took forever! Normally, you get cold on a lift and warm up going skiing down. Unfortunatley for this smaller mountain, the runs down were only about a mile (way under 10 minutes for us to ski down and not nearly long enough to get heated) and the lift going up was SO SLOW that we just froze on the 20 minutes to the top. We've really gotten spoiled with faster lifts on the bigger mountains we've been frequenting. So, after only 5 runs, we were ready to call it a day.
That evening, we made pizza, watched a movie, and got a long night's sleep. Sun morning we slept late, woke up to a beautiful snowfall, had breakfast and started packing up to get home. The same snowfall we woke up to was also waiting for us at home and had to be cleaned up. While Mike hit the driveway and sidewalks with the snow blower, I cleaned off my car, grabbed a shovel and cleared off ours and our neighbors stairways (with the exception of our front stair that is still non existent). After that, it was another lazy day indoors.
I wish I could say that all this relaxing was welcome, but I'm quite honestly tired of it! I call it relaxing, but it's really sitting around doing nothing because I don't have the energy to do much else. I was hoping to get some energy back for the 2nd trimester, but I'm starting to think that's not going to happen. I'm tired of being tired! I at least need some new shows to watch or books to read. If anyone knows of something thrilling I might be missing, please let me know!
We decided to go skiing on Saturday. According to everyone I spoke to about it, they thought I was a complete idiot for even considering doing such a "dangerous" and "risky" activity while pregnant. Honestly, I didn't (and still don't) see the big deal. I ski all the time and it's something I'm very comfortable with, know my limits and enjoy immensely. So, before I got too big and off balance, I wanted to go at least once this season. However, I knew I wouldn't be able to last all day...actually, had no idea how long I would last at all...so we decided to do buy one of the half-day passes (noon to close) on one of the smaller (ie cheaper) mountains.
Saturday morning, we got up, had a leisurely breakfast and then started packing up. The first ski trip of the season always takes forever to figure out what we need and get everything together. During that process, I started getting really nervous about my decision to go. All those folks telling me it was horrible idea paired with the fact that we were going to a mountain I had only been to once 7 years ago and am completely unfamiliar with got to me. But, I muscled up some courage and went anyway.
Boy am I glad I did! It was great to be on the slopes again and we had a great time. It was a nice little mountain and hardly anyone was there so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. However, it was a VERY cold day and the ski lift to the top took forever! Normally, you get cold on a lift and warm up going skiing down. Unfortunatley for this smaller mountain, the runs down were only about a mile (way under 10 minutes for us to ski down and not nearly long enough to get heated) and the lift going up was SO SLOW that we just froze on the 20 minutes to the top. We've really gotten spoiled with faster lifts on the bigger mountains we've been frequenting. So, after only 5 runs, we were ready to call it a day.
That evening, we made pizza, watched a movie, and got a long night's sleep. Sun morning we slept late, woke up to a beautiful snowfall, had breakfast and started packing up to get home. The same snowfall we woke up to was also waiting for us at home and had to be cleaned up. While Mike hit the driveway and sidewalks with the snow blower, I cleaned off my car, grabbed a shovel and cleared off ours and our neighbors stairways (with the exception of our front stair that is still non existent). After that, it was another lazy day indoors.
I wish I could say that all this relaxing was welcome, but I'm quite honestly tired of it! I call it relaxing, but it's really sitting around doing nothing because I don't have the energy to do much else. I was hoping to get some energy back for the 2nd trimester, but I'm starting to think that's not going to happen. I'm tired of being tired! I at least need some new shows to watch or books to read. If anyone knows of something thrilling I might be missing, please let me know!
1/9/09
A Little Home Incident
This morning at about 2 am during one of my frequent middle of the night bathroom trips (thanks, little baby!), Luci seemed interested in drinking out of the sink. That's the norm for Oliver (our oldest cat) but Luci sticks to still water for the most part. In the effort of her medical condition, I turned on the faucet to a drip to "encourage" her drinking and headed back to bed.
While slowly waking this morning, I heard a drip and assumed it was the bathroom sink. After getting up and looking in there, there was no drip. Slightly confused but still half asleep so didn't think much of it. Then, I leaned down into the sink to wash my face and saw water behind the sink (we have a "raised" sink and the faucet sits behind it completely separate from the sink). There was water pooled all over the sink vanity! Apparently, the drip was so little, it either didn't drip from the faucet and ran back along the faucet towards the base of it or the slight opening of the faucet valve caused a leak from the head of the faucet (yet to be determined). So, I grabbed some towels and started mopping up the water on the vanity then checked underneath the vanity to see if any made it down there. There was some small puddling, so I started cleaning (Mike was also up at this point to help me in the clean up effort).
While on the floor cleaning the puddles a horrible thought occurred to me, "was that dripping sound I heard the water continuing downstairs?" I voiced this to Mike who immediately went down to check. Yup! That was the source of the dripping! I ran down to check out the damage. The water took the path of least resistance and was dripping through one of the recessed can lights onto the kitchen floor. We grabbed more towels and started cleaning that. I then went down to the basement and, sure enough, the water had made it all the way down there to puddle! Ugh! That's what 5 hours of very slowly dripping water can do! Big puddles on 3 levels.
The good news is that on our initial observation, very little damage was done. The paint behind our sink will need to be touched up a bit since some came off when we were toweling off the area (one of the down sides we've found of low-VOC paint is that it doesn't seem to be as "strong" as the high chemical stuff..it doesn't stand up to painters tape well nor water). We also may need to touch up a bit of paint on the ceiling around the light canister in the kitchen but won't know for sure until everything gets a chance to dry out. The hardwood floors in the kitchen didn't look warped and, well, our basement is used to seeing water anyway so no harm there. Whew! How "lucky" are we?!?!
Of course, I left for work and Mike will be doing more clean up so hopefully we won't find any more bad news.
While slowly waking this morning, I heard a drip and assumed it was the bathroom sink. After getting up and looking in there, there was no drip. Slightly confused but still half asleep so didn't think much of it. Then, I leaned down into the sink to wash my face and saw water behind the sink (we have a "raised" sink and the faucet sits behind it completely separate from the sink). There was water pooled all over the sink vanity! Apparently, the drip was so little, it either didn't drip from the faucet and ran back along the faucet towards the base of it or the slight opening of the faucet valve caused a leak from the head of the faucet (yet to be determined). So, I grabbed some towels and started mopping up the water on the vanity then checked underneath the vanity to see if any made it down there. There was some small puddling, so I started cleaning (Mike was also up at this point to help me in the clean up effort).
While on the floor cleaning the puddles a horrible thought occurred to me, "was that dripping sound I heard the water continuing downstairs?" I voiced this to Mike who immediately went down to check. Yup! That was the source of the dripping! I ran down to check out the damage. The water took the path of least resistance and was dripping through one of the recessed can lights onto the kitchen floor. We grabbed more towels and started cleaning that. I then went down to the basement and, sure enough, the water had made it all the way down there to puddle! Ugh! That's what 5 hours of very slowly dripping water can do! Big puddles on 3 levels.
The good news is that on our initial observation, very little damage was done. The paint behind our sink will need to be touched up a bit since some came off when we were toweling off the area (one of the down sides we've found of low-VOC paint is that it doesn't seem to be as "strong" as the high chemical stuff..it doesn't stand up to painters tape well nor water). We also may need to touch up a bit of paint on the ceiling around the light canister in the kitchen but won't know for sure until everything gets a chance to dry out. The hardwood floors in the kitchen didn't look warped and, well, our basement is used to seeing water anyway so no harm there. Whew! How "lucky" are we?!?!
Of course, I left for work and Mike will be doing more clean up so hopefully we won't find any more bad news.
1/8/09
Fighting the Obesity Epidemic
I read this article on boston.com today. Massachusetts may soon be following NY's lead and require chain restaurants to post nutritional info on their menus.
I think it's great and I look forward to the legislation (hopefully) passing! As one that has lost weight(and maintained that loss) by carefully tracking and managing calories (along with other nutritional information), having that data readily available on restaurant menus would make my life a lot easier. I'm hoping it would make some waist lines smaller as well and increase the demand for healthier fare at more restaurants. Chains have definitely made progress on providing better foods, but there's still a long way to go!
I think it's great and I look forward to the legislation (hopefully) passing! As one that has lost weight(and maintained that loss) by carefully tracking and managing calories (along with other nutritional information), having that data readily available on restaurant menus would make my life a lot easier. I'm hoping it would make some waist lines smaller as well and increase the demand for healthier fare at more restaurants. Chains have definitely made progress on providing better foods, but there's still a long way to go!
1/7/09
Poor Little Luci!
Our poor little baby Lucienne, our youngest cat, has just had another trip to the vet for a urinary tract infection. For any of you ladies that have ever had the unfortunate occurrence of one of these, you know how uncomfortable they are. We recently had her on antibiotics for a UTI (note, Luci does not like have fluid shot down her throat). Last week, she was having litter box trouble yet again, so it was back to the vet. While there, she donated a "sample" for them, got an x-ray that showed no obstruction, received a cortisone shot and came home with another dose of antibiotics. The culture came back negative for UTI! The explanation? The poor dear has what's called Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease. What this means is that she will sometimes get inflammations that will have the same symptoms of a UTI but is not an infection.
To prevent flare ups, we're supposed to "encourage" her to drink water....IE there's not much we can do. For those of you that don't have cats, making them do anything outside of their will is near impossible. For those of you that do have cats, you know exactly what I mean. We will try to "encourage" her by leaving more drinking spots around the house and giving her "treats" (wet food) more often. For the most part, though, this just means that we'll need to keep an eye on her litter box habits and take her to the vet for a cortisone shot if we see any of her symptoms. Hopefully, these flare ups will be few and far between. I hate to see her so uncomfortable!
1/1/09
Happy New Year!!
Hurray for 2009! I hope everyone had an enjoyable and safe holiday. While NYE is normally one of my favorite holidays, this one wasn't exactly memorable. We had planned to have some good friends over for a small gathering and a fun game night, but a nasty cold I got screwed up those plans. So, instead, Mike and I made our favorite "special" dinner, pizza, watched a movie and then watched some of the New Years Eve specials on tv. Those specials were disappointing and boring. What happened to the good old days of excitedly watching Dick Clark and waiting for the ball to drop? I really tried to make it to midnight but gave up at 11:30. So, Mike rung in the new year with Smokey, the chinchilla, and I rang it in with some zzz's. Next NYE will likely be very different from our "norm" as well since we'll have a 6 month old in the house. Wow, that's weird to try and imagine.
New Years Day is a time of reflection for the past year and a time to look forward to the year to come. Thanks to all of our friends and family who have made the last year a spectacular and memorable one. We love you all and and feel so grateful to have you in our lives. Have a great 2009 everyone!
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