Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
Is this not proof that my belief that humor therapy should not only be government subsidized but also our companies should have to pay to take us to stand-up comedians or watch episodes of 30 Rock during the work day?
One of my main course modules that I'm doing right now for my current semester is about Ergonomics and there is a whole ginormous part in there about work stress loads and tension and the unhealthiness that comes with being overworked. PRETTY DANG TIMELY I'D SAY.
We are still dying over here at the office. I'm almost done with this huge diamond mine project but this is the "downhill slope" part of the project which means everything is looming at 500 mph and I can't keep up. Add that to the fact I'm kinda sick AND the inlaws are (still) here and I'm seriously hurting. I might kill someone this week.
Tonight when we leave the office, we're going to Dr. GoodVet and picking up our new boy. We fetched him from the shelter this morning and lugged his 50kg+ body into the truck and off to Dr. Snip-snip. Rowwwerrrrrrrr! He was so good though. This dog may look smiley, but he's the scarediest scardey pup I've ever had to work with. He's petrified of everything. Good for the fact that we won't have the same problems (chomp!) we had with Sech's rehab, but bad for the fact that I just feel so sorry for him and this will be a long road to recovery because he has absolute zero in the way of confidence, & very high stress levels. He pees SO. FRICKIN. MUCH. I swear his bladder holds about 80L of pee.
The weekend away at the posh bush lodge was good, but of course it was with the inlaws so... agh I dont even know what to say. We saw a lioness on the hunt, a breakaway pack of wild dogs, rhino, elephant, etc., and my MIL was freaked out by anything that looked remotely dangerous. Now see, I just don't have time for that crap. You're spending thousands of bucks to be out there in the african elements, don't sit in the truck and hyperventilate! Come ON! And then within the same 12 hours, my know-it-all FIL says (as he does in his gruff, manly farmer voice of omniscience) "agh! these guides don't need to walk us back to our chalets with guns! it's all just for show!" Riiight. Gotcha. Frickin know-it-all. How about that BLACK RHINO WHO CAME UP TO THE EATING AREA WHILE YOU WERE SUCKING DOWN YOUR 15TH BEER AT DINNER?
photos soon.
Is this not proof that my belief that humor therapy should not only be government subsidized but also our companies should have to pay to take us to stand-up comedians or watch episodes of 30 Rock during the work day?
One of my main course modules that I'm doing right now for my current semester is about Ergonomics and there is a whole ginormous part in there about work stress loads and tension and the unhealthiness that comes with being overworked. PRETTY DANG TIMELY I'D SAY.
We are still dying over here at the office. I'm almost done with this huge diamond mine project but this is the "downhill slope" part of the project which means everything is looming at 500 mph and I can't keep up. Add that to the fact I'm kinda sick AND the inlaws are (still) here and I'm seriously hurting. I might kill someone this week.
Tonight when we leave the office, we're going to Dr. GoodVet and picking up our new boy. We fetched him from the shelter this morning and lugged his 50kg+ body into the truck and off to Dr. Snip-snip. Rowwwerrrrrrrr! He was so good though. This dog may look smiley, but he's the scarediest scardey pup I've ever had to work with. He's petrified of everything. Good for the fact that we won't have the same problems (chomp!) we had with Sech's rehab, but bad for the fact that I just feel so sorry for him and this will be a long road to recovery because he has absolute zero in the way of confidence, & very high stress levels. He pees SO. FRICKIN. MUCH. I swear his bladder holds about 80L of pee.
The weekend away at the posh bush lodge was good, but of course it was with the inlaws so... agh I dont even know what to say. We saw a lioness on the hunt, a breakaway pack of wild dogs, rhino, elephant, etc., and my MIL was freaked out by anything that looked remotely dangerous. Now see, I just don't have time for that crap. You're spending thousands of bucks to be out there in the african elements, don't sit in the truck and hyperventilate! Come ON! And then within the same 12 hours, my know-it-all FIL says (as he does in his gruff, manly farmer voice of omniscience) "agh! these guides don't need to walk us back to our chalets with guns! it's all just for show!" Riiight. Gotcha. Frickin know-it-all. How about that BLACK RHINO WHO CAME UP TO THE EATING AREA WHILE YOU WERE SUCKING DOWN YOUR 15TH BEER AT DINNER?
photos soon.
Labels: hounds, stress management, work
So I'm having my lunch of "a" cracker and listening to my unearthed Jayhawks cd "Hollywood Town Hall", a pivotal album of my life that I guess you could say I "overlistened" to during my teen years, subsequently shelved in my 20s, and have only just now gotten up the gumption to resurrect! What a blast from the past!
OK anyway so the Mr. is highly grumpy today and taking it out on everyone else, likely because the inlaws are on their way back down from K-town, and we're just gearing up for the crap.
So I will try and just ignore his ranting and go to my happy place. That's right, focus on something positive.
Like stuff that makes my friends happy! For example, Brandon and Adelly and my old HS friend Tessa will all be rendezvousing in San Antonio this weekend. Rather than mope because I can't be there, I will just read their smsing and mmsing and email and FB posts over and over and imagine myself there, double-fisting a Shiner and a Margarita.
The Animal Peeps have a new Sech in lock-down at the moment, and they really want us to take him, as he has a very sordid past of abuse & neglect - just like Sech - and needs some work. Lots of work. OK he doesn't have half a leg hanging off his body, but instead, he has no meat on his bones and is so frightened it took us 30 minutes of gentle coaxing (and meat) to get him to even stand up and walk 10 paces out of his kennel. The Mr. has been looking for another "project", and I believe this guy is it. The Animal Peeps really don't want to rehome him with anyone around here, because they know he's going to be a serious rehab challenge. Even though as soon as the general public know there's a nice big boerboel in the kennels, we get a wave of people all of a sudden desperate to adopt a dog and make the world a better place. Uh-huh. Nice. But what about this 5 year old street mutt? Um, no thanks. Not cool enough, right? Anyway, we took Reilly over to introduce them to each other and see how he would do with other dogs. He was so stressed out it was unbelievable. Reilly, on the other hand, is always a champ with dogs of any demeanor. She could really be a therapy dog, I believe. She knows exactly when to turn her head away and be "invisible", and exactly when to sniff, or not sniff, or lay down in submission or bristle in warning. Made a lot of progress in just 1 hour. But, I see long hours ahead of me. (yea!) We're getting him snipped Monday, and will bring him home with us Tuesday to see how he does. Fingers crossed.
Soooooooooooo off we go into the bush with the M/FIL this weekend. Nice safari lodge booked. I'm keeping my mouth shut. It'll be nice and "shut" when the FIL decides to rank, review, and pontificate on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING and how "different" and "inefficient" everything they saw and did in K-town this week was, and likewise whatever we get up to in the bush Sat-Mon. I swear it must be hard to know abso-frickin-lutely everything about the whole universe and everything in it. I mean it just must be a real weight on your shoulders to have all that knowledge after only 58 years on earth! I bet his head hurts a lot... To be such a genius on all topics stemming from American politics, to what africans eat, the far superior conditions that The Netherlands has got going for it, to his profound observations along the lines of "black people smell different". Winner!!
Podgey says I just have to remember that these are the people who gave birth to the love of my life, the man I can't live without and who has made my life worth living. Now if I can just make some sort of catchy mantra that is easy to hum and I can dance to it, so it won't keep slipping away from my memory... he's right though. Serenity now...
OK anyway so the Mr. is highly grumpy today and taking it out on everyone else, likely because the inlaws are on their way back down from K-town, and we're just gearing up for the crap.
So I will try and just ignore his ranting and go to my happy place. That's right, focus on something positive.
Like stuff that makes my friends happy! For example, Brandon and Adelly and my old HS friend Tessa will all be rendezvousing in San Antonio this weekend. Rather than mope because I can't be there, I will just read their smsing and mmsing and email and FB posts over and over and imagine myself there, double-fisting a Shiner and a Margarita.
The Animal Peeps have a new Sech in lock-down at the moment, and they really want us to take him, as he has a very sordid past of abuse & neglect - just like Sech - and needs some work. Lots of work. OK he doesn't have half a leg hanging off his body, but instead, he has no meat on his bones and is so frightened it took us 30 minutes of gentle coaxing (and meat) to get him to even stand up and walk 10 paces out of his kennel. The Mr. has been looking for another "project", and I believe this guy is it. The Animal Peeps really don't want to rehome him with anyone around here, because they know he's going to be a serious rehab challenge. Even though as soon as the general public know there's a nice big boerboel in the kennels, we get a wave of people all of a sudden desperate to adopt a dog and make the world a better place. Uh-huh. Nice. But what about this 5 year old street mutt? Um, no thanks. Not cool enough, right? Anyway, we took Reilly over to introduce them to each other and see how he would do with other dogs. He was so stressed out it was unbelievable. Reilly, on the other hand, is always a champ with dogs of any demeanor. She could really be a therapy dog, I believe. She knows exactly when to turn her head away and be "invisible", and exactly when to sniff, or not sniff, or lay down in submission or bristle in warning. Made a lot of progress in just 1 hour. But, I see long hours ahead of me. (yea!) We're getting him snipped Monday, and will bring him home with us Tuesday to see how he does. Fingers crossed.
Soooooooooooo off we go into the bush with the M/FIL this weekend. Nice safari lodge booked. I'm keeping my mouth shut. It'll be nice and "shut" when the FIL decides to rank, review, and pontificate on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING and how "different" and "inefficient" everything they saw and did in K-town this week was, and likewise whatever we get up to in the bush Sat-Mon. I swear it must be hard to know abso-frickin-lutely everything about the whole universe and everything in it. I mean it just must be a real weight on your shoulders to have all that knowledge after only 58 years on earth! I bet his head hurts a lot... To be such a genius on all topics stemming from American politics, to what africans eat, the far superior conditions that The Netherlands has got going for it, to his profound observations along the lines of "black people smell different". Winner!!
Podgey says I just have to remember that these are the people who gave birth to the love of my life, the man I can't live without and who has made my life worth living. Now if I can just make some sort of catchy mantra that is easy to hum and I can dance to it, so it won't keep slipping away from my memory... he's right though. Serenity now...
Labels: aggro, animal peeps, music
and. another one approaches still
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 25 March 2009 at 3/25/2009 08:12:00 pm.
So my 4 days of respite from the in-laws draws to a close. They comeback from K-town friday. The Mr. talked to them from their hotel room tonight and apparently the MIL went as far as to say it was lovely up there whereas in classic FIL style it was "interesting". The food is "different". And it was just "such a shame" the way "they" cook "their" meat. As in it's grilled in the outdoors. Apparently that's too "smokey" for his liking. But of course, this is the man who eats nothing but hunks of boiled meat with potatoes 365 days a year, go figure.
Classic. But why would i expect anything else... This is the same audience who expressed their "thanks" to me slaving away over 5 hrs on a roast leg of lamb for them when they visited in Ireland by saying it was "interesting".
Saturday we go on safari with them for 2 days in Madikwe. Should be soooooo looking forward to it... Luxury 5-star lodge, nice food, animals, relaxing naps, sundowners... Yeah. Yea.
Classic. But why would i expect anything else... This is the same audience who expressed their "thanks" to me slaving away over 5 hrs on a roast leg of lamb for them when they visited in Ireland by saying it was "interesting".
Saturday we go on safari with them for 2 days in Madikwe. Should be soooooo looking forward to it... Luxury 5-star lodge, nice food, animals, relaxing naps, sundowners... Yeah. Yea.
Labels: mi familia
Why? Why! Whyyyy!?
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 23 March 2009 at 3/23/2009 01:40:00 pm.
Why does my FIL have to be such a $%&#!???
I feel sorry for The Mr. because he has to entertain these people more than I do, and by that I mean they basically just want to talk to him and fawn over him and be served by him and have all their questions entertained by him... kinda lets me off the hook, but by the same token, that's just not how we normally roll. It's hard. Know what else is hard? Know-it-alls and over-analysers, and people who take vacations to english-speaking countries and then proceed to speak to Botswana-born waitresses, etc, in european languages. riiiiiiiiiight. lemme know how that works for you.
The longer I'm around my MIL, the more I can appreciate the person that she is, the more that I can have sympathy for her and feel sensitive to even the things she does that make me want to throttle something/someone.
I suppose in the spirit of the QSI I should stop right there and move on with my life, but can I just say one big, private
AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
while I'm here? I won't feel sorry for myself. I will just persevere!!!
OK, with that out of the way...
I am struggling to finish this giant report at work. It's been weighing on my soul for so long now, and I'm kind of on the downward slope, but that just makes it even harder to finish. Staying at home and working from there a few days last week and the one before helped a bit, because let's face it, I'm way more productive outside of the office. But I still have that "just barely keeping up" feeling in general. Again we're back to the inherent fact that I DONT LIKE MY JOB, but yes, I know I like it MORE when I'm being diligent and getting things done. And listening to music and turning off the internet, etc. None of which I've been doing lately (well, the music because I currently need to be WRITING, which I can't do at the same time) because I'm out of my inspiration-rut. When I find myself uninspired about work, it's normally because I've hit a rough patch where I'm distracted and not performing well.
I also need to dig my heels into my studies. I have 2 assignments that I havent even started and I neeeeeeeeeeed tooooooo.
Why am I such a slacker!!?? I'll tell ya why:
1. Moving
2. New toy
3. Tired
4. Inlaws
5. Other visitors
6. Life
I have a relaxing koi pond on my iPhone. WT....????
OK right so the inlaws got put on a plane yesterday to go up to the Chobe/Vic Falls for a week. So the next 4 days are "alone time" for me and The Mr. [huge sigh of relief]. Tonight after climbing K-hill and towelling off, we will go have a salad or something light at M&B and then go see "He's Just Not That Into You". Yea! Boston Legal is over now, so no reason to not use Monday Nights to our advantage :) They're back (the ILs) on friday. At which point we will be going away for the weekend together. Have mercy it better be one of those last-minute-luxury-lodge deals so at least I feel like I'm getting something out of it. Have mercy, again I say have mercy.
I feel sorry for The Mr. because he has to entertain these people more than I do, and by that I mean they basically just want to talk to him and fawn over him and be served by him and have all their questions entertained by him... kinda lets me off the hook, but by the same token, that's just not how we normally roll. It's hard. Know what else is hard? Know-it-alls and over-analysers, and people who take vacations to english-speaking countries and then proceed to speak to Botswana-born waitresses, etc, in european languages. riiiiiiiiiight. lemme know how that works for you.
The longer I'm around my MIL, the more I can appreciate the person that she is, the more that I can have sympathy for her and feel sensitive to even the things she does that make me want to throttle something/someone.
I suppose in the spirit of the QSI I should stop right there and move on with my life, but can I just say one big, private
AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
while I'm here? I won't feel sorry for myself. I will just persevere!!!
OK, with that out of the way...
I am struggling to finish this giant report at work. It's been weighing on my soul for so long now, and I'm kind of on the downward slope, but that just makes it even harder to finish. Staying at home and working from there a few days last week and the one before helped a bit, because let's face it, I'm way more productive outside of the office. But I still have that "just barely keeping up" feeling in general. Again we're back to the inherent fact that I DONT LIKE MY JOB, but yes, I know I like it MORE when I'm being diligent and getting things done. And listening to music and turning off the internet, etc. None of which I've been doing lately (well, the music because I currently need to be WRITING, which I can't do at the same time) because I'm out of my inspiration-rut. When I find myself uninspired about work, it's normally because I've hit a rough patch where I'm distracted and not performing well.
I also need to dig my heels into my studies. I have 2 assignments that I havent even started and I neeeeeeeeeeed tooooooo.
Why am I such a slacker!!?? I'll tell ya why:
1. Moving
2. New toy
3. Tired
4. Inlaws
5. Other visitors
6. Life
I have a relaxing koi pond on my iPhone. WT....????
OK right so the inlaws got put on a plane yesterday to go up to the Chobe/Vic Falls for a week. So the next 4 days are "alone time" for me and The Mr. [huge sigh of relief]. Tonight after climbing K-hill and towelling off, we will go have a salad or something light at M&B and then go see "He's Just Not That Into You". Yea! Boston Legal is over now, so no reason to not use Monday Nights to our advantage :) They're back (the ILs) on friday. At which point we will be going away for the weekend together. Have mercy it better be one of those last-minute-luxury-lodge deals so at least I feel like I'm getting something out of it. Have mercy, again I say have mercy.
another D-day upon us
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 19 March 2009 at 3/19/2009 12:28:00 pm.
Inlaws coming! Tomorrow! Aaaaaaaagggggggghhhh!!!
I gotta get my Dutch head on. Havent been practicing a lot lately, so this will be exhausting.
Working at home again today. It's still proving to work more efficiently, and is also a good excuse to drink the good coffee (percolated & strong), wear slacker clothes, and keep CNN on in the background all day (or catch-up episodes of This American Life & All Songs Considered, which are building up in backlog lately bc I'm TOO BUSY!!!) just got another "rush job" commissioned today. Greaaaat.
Touch type on iphone still too slow.
I'm becoming a skyper now.
Evernote app for iphone lets me email a to-do or shopping list, etc. to anyone. Ha ha, guess what the Mr.'s getting before he leaves the office today!! I should ask around and see how many of my friends want me to make lists for them, regularly. Oh THAT could be fun!
I gotta get my Dutch head on. Havent been practicing a lot lately, so this will be exhausting.
Working at home again today. It's still proving to work more efficiently, and is also a good excuse to drink the good coffee (percolated & strong), wear slacker clothes, and keep CNN on in the background all day (or catch-up episodes of This American Life & All Songs Considered, which are building up in backlog lately bc I'm TOO BUSY!!!) just got another "rush job" commissioned today. Greaaaat.
Touch type on iphone still too slow.
I'm becoming a skyper now.
Evernote app for iphone lets me email a to-do or shopping list, etc. to anyone. Ha ha, guess what the Mr.'s getting before he leaves the office today!! I should ask around and see how many of my friends want me to make lists for them, regularly. Oh THAT could be fun!
3 things before I hit the hay...
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 17 March 2009 at 3/17/2009 09:06:00 pm.
1) I wish billy would lay off attacking the spitting cobras. 2nd day in a row now I find Mr. Swollen Eyes when I get home.
2) I ate my first REAL free-range LOCAL chicken tonight. This was not big-business Trader Joes chicken nor Whole Foods free-range-by-way-of-1000km-of-fossil-fuels. This chicken pecked around my very own yard and ate nothing but bugs n' grubs from our very own property for 100% of its entire life, and was killed by my own maid (as my goodbye pressie) and handed to me in a yellow plastic Shop-Rite bag. I cooked it tonight and YES yes yes yes boy howdy did it taste different. And delicious. The most astounding difference, I believe, was the texture.
3) True Blood is quite possibly the dumbest show out there. So why have I not yet missed 1 episode of the 1st season?
Mobile Blogging from here.
2) I ate my first REAL free-range LOCAL chicken tonight. This was not big-business Trader Joes chicken nor Whole Foods free-range-by-way-of-1000km-of-fossil-fuels. This chicken pecked around my very own yard and ate nothing but bugs n' grubs from our very own property for 100% of its entire life, and was killed by my own maid (as my goodbye pressie) and handed to me in a yellow plastic Shop-Rite bag. I cooked it tonight and YES yes yes yes boy howdy did it taste different. And delicious. The most astounding difference, I believe, was the texture.
3) True Blood is quite possibly the dumbest show out there. So why have I not yet missed 1 episode of the 1st season?
Mobile Blogging from here.
Labels: mary
testing testing 123...
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 16 March 2009 at 3/16/2009 09:31:00 am.
Right. Iphone Grump No. 247: "What is the Point of This App?!?!" so i download this iblogger app, hoping itll actually offer even a slight advantage over simply logging onto safari and doing the whole thing thru the mini-internet screen and manual tpuch keyboard (when will the i-geniouses get a voice-to-text-and-then-cut/npaste app thing, hmmmmm???!!) but unfortunately all i'm seeing is that it holds your accounts open for you. Saves log-in time. Ok, thanks, that's almost worth $0.99!
K, coffee break is over.
K, coffee break is over.
Labels: me the techgeek
New technology, not so blog friendly
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on at 3/16/2009 09:20:00 am.
Help i cant blog from my iphone! This thing is perplexing. It keeps me so "online all the time" which is great but typing out long strings of text on the touch-typer is a pain in the hole. So i keep putting blogger off.. In favor of the FB and txting and browsing, etc.
Anyway in other news last week was unruly freakin chaos. I had 5 commuter flights in 3 days, inluding one from joburg to gabz which, due to weather flew me TWICE to gabz and back becos we couldnt land! Meetings out the wazoo. Finally got into the office on fri afternoon, exhausted. The good thing is that The Mr. was involved too, so we didnt have to spend any nights apart, due to our master scheduling wizardry. Arent we supposed to be in a recession? Did i not hear something about that? Ow! Too busy. Busy all morning with the Animal Peeps event so couldnt even catch up on any sleep, blast it! Sunday HAD to wake up and get to gym... Shirking my fitness duties in this time of pressure too. Gained 2kg since the big house-move alredy. Ahhg!!!!! I just need a break. And it aint even on the horizon. Inlaws descending on us this weekend now! WT.....??
Otherwise, i'm now officially down one bff here in BW. Again. Now they're effectively all gone. Petra's last party was sat. and then she came round for a more personal good bye dinner last night. We sat out on the stoep and drank wine and tried to get her is as positive a frame of mind as possible about going back to holland. I told her every time she gets gloomy missing BW, just to think about how she can ride her bike everywhere and how the lines at the bank arent 90 mins long or how the grocery store has more than 3 kinds of cheese.
The party sat. was good fun albeit sad. P. combined it with the Mr's bff, G. who is also leaving this week's going away party. So it was double sadness all around. Boo hoo! Now we're both bff-less. Please send new mates!
Anyway in other news last week was unruly freakin chaos. I had 5 commuter flights in 3 days, inluding one from joburg to gabz which, due to weather flew me TWICE to gabz and back becos we couldnt land! Meetings out the wazoo. Finally got into the office on fri afternoon, exhausted. The good thing is that The Mr. was involved too, so we didnt have to spend any nights apart, due to our master scheduling wizardry. Arent we supposed to be in a recession? Did i not hear something about that? Ow! Too busy. Busy all morning with the Animal Peeps event so couldnt even catch up on any sleep, blast it! Sunday HAD to wake up and get to gym... Shirking my fitness duties in this time of pressure too. Gained 2kg since the big house-move alredy. Ahhg!!!!! I just need a break. And it aint even on the horizon. Inlaws descending on us this weekend now! WT.....??
Otherwise, i'm now officially down one bff here in BW. Again. Now they're effectively all gone. Petra's last party was sat. and then she came round for a more personal good bye dinner last night. We sat out on the stoep and drank wine and tried to get her is as positive a frame of mind as possible about going back to holland. I told her every time she gets gloomy missing BW, just to think about how she can ride her bike everywhere and how the lines at the bank arent 90 mins long or how the grocery store has more than 3 kinds of cheese.
The party sat. was good fun albeit sad. P. combined it with the Mr's bff, G. who is also leaving this week's going away party. So it was double sadness all around. Boo hoo! Now we're both bff-less. Please send new mates!
Labels: me the techgeek, mis amigos, work
Annnnnd we're in! (and happy anniversary to me)
1 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 02 March 2009 at 3/02/2009 12:17:00 pm.
I have a few photos of the new house PRE-furniture, as just a big old empty canvas. But of course I forgot the camera today. Oops. The past weekend has been nothing but an absolute blur of unpacking, organizing, hole-drilling, cramming, up the stairs, down the stairs, up the stairs, down the stairs, lifting, shifting, and not a lot of relaxing.
My feet have never EVER hurt so much in my life. Never. Not even after my first weekend on the job as a waitress. NEVER. And I only peed once yesterday because I haven't been hydrating - let alone eating - but yet I still manage to be 1kg heavier than I was BEFORE the move!??! WTF?!?!
Friday was semi-pleasant, crashing in our neighbour's little guest cottage by the river (just opposite our old house) with Al and the Mr. and the puppies. We had a braai and listened to all my cool new music on the ol' laptop, and tried to get the puppies to go on a canoe ride, but they were having none of it. Up with the birds before 7am (ON A SATURDAY), fetched Mary, drove through the bush (the back way) to G-village and met the movers and the chaos ensued.
We actually had a house full of stuff by lunch time, which I was amazed at - I really thought it would take longer. But even the big things like the fridge and sofas etc pretty much just flew themselves in there and set themselves up like lightning. BUT!
Of course carpet guy let me down. Alas there was some issue with his truck being stuck at the border, etc etc, blah blah, and carpet never showed. Carpet was supposed to show this morning, monday morning, 1st thing in the morning. Never showed. 10 phone calls and some rather unruly language later I find out his truck was in a wreck last night and was impounded at the cop shop so he couldn't deliver. Ugh. So now he's going to deliver the material (today) but not install it til tomorrow. first thing. supposedly. we're runnin out of time here, people! jeeeez. SheofDC is arriving in a wee few days and I need carpet! And linoleum! Which I managed to find today. Shortly after realizing these carpet fools weren't coming, I went into town (after hanging at the house WAITING til 11am) and found the lino. It ain't pretty. But at least it's dark blue & light blue. Much more bathroomy than pink & maroon-red. blech! We'll lay that tonight (on our anniversary ~sniff~) and have that out of the way.
I AM SO FRICKIN SORE! My dogs are barkin! My dogs are barkin! I can hardly stand up straight. My legs hurt because apparently they don't remember what it's like to live in a 2-story house anymore and I must've made at least 100 trips up and down over 24 hours.
ANYWAY, today is the day of my 7 year anniversary. And I couldn't be happier. As 2009 is the year of love (and good luck) I think our 7th year is going to be the best. This whole 7-year-itch thing is way ridiculous. When you're married to a guy like the Mr., how can you NOT just keep falling more and more in love with him every year? As far as I'm concerned, I got love in logarithmic style... each year it grows exponentially and I say bring on the 7s. Then again I know I'm lucky and I got lucky and not everyone gets lucky, so I'll just keep counting my blessings and remind myself to stop complaining about the little stuff. My life could have been very, very different and I would be less of a person if it wasn't for meeting the Mr. 9 years ago and marrying him nearly 2 years later.
Unfortunately there's still too much work to be done in the house, to really go out and celebrate love and romance tonight (but we knew that, which is why we pulled out all the stops on valentine's day) but I'm not sweating it, because I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Saturday night we all went to bed with not even an open square inch of floor space in the whole house, due to boxes of junk and random bits and pieces everywhere. Sunday night we went to bed and you could see that people did indeed live in the house, and that it wasn't just a Federal Emergency/Disaster Zone. Hell, there were even pictures hanging up on the walls. Just shy of "presentable". Tonight, things like clocks and decorations and books will make their debut out in the open, after 2 weeks in a box, and then tomorrow there will be carpet and lino upstairs in the master loft. Just in time for SheofDC on thursday.
Along that line is Emelda, my new maid. She was helping the previous tenants move out and was cleaning the place up for them on the day we moved in. She's lovely and from Zim, like Mary, and she and Mary had a nice chat and liked each other, and I kind of felt like it was Mary "handing me off" to someone else, that day.... it was just a vibe, I can't really say what, so after watching her work that day I thought she would be great and asked her if she wanted to work for us and she said yes. woo hoo! She's lovely and today I showed her all the ins and outs of working for the wayward family and their hounds, and I think she'll be just fine. She was a little scared of our laundry machine and her mop water looked pretty rank after cleaning the tiles but nothing traumatic. And she likes dogs and is quite busy talking to them while she works, so I'm chuffed. Whew. That was one thing still left weighing on my mind = sorted.
Mary gave me a chicken to say good bye on saturday and gave me a huge cuddle and picked me up and swung me around a little bit. The Mr. dropped her home that night and apparently there was an emotional moment there too. :( But she's still intending to clean our office for us once a week so at least we'll still see her a bit. I would miss her sooooooooo much otherwise, and would have to make some excuse up like going out to buy more chickens off of her every week or something (she'd run out within a couple months I think), if she wouldn't. What with my aims of trying to eat more local and free range these days, that wouldn't actually be such a bad deal. Just not on the way to anywhere...
I will wait til all of the above house-things have been accomplished before taking "after-" photos, but hopefully tomorrow I will have a chance to at least post "before".
My feet have never EVER hurt so much in my life. Never. Not even after my first weekend on the job as a waitress. NEVER. And I only peed once yesterday because I haven't been hydrating - let alone eating - but yet I still manage to be 1kg heavier than I was BEFORE the move!??! WTF?!?!
Friday was semi-pleasant, crashing in our neighbour's little guest cottage by the river (just opposite our old house) with Al and the Mr. and the puppies. We had a braai and listened to all my cool new music on the ol' laptop, and tried to get the puppies to go on a canoe ride, but they were having none of it. Up with the birds before 7am (ON A SATURDAY), fetched Mary, drove through the bush (the back way) to G-village and met the movers and the chaos ensued.
We actually had a house full of stuff by lunch time, which I was amazed at - I really thought it would take longer. But even the big things like the fridge and sofas etc pretty much just flew themselves in there and set themselves up like lightning. BUT!
Of course carpet guy let me down. Alas there was some issue with his truck being stuck at the border, etc etc, blah blah, and carpet never showed. Carpet was supposed to show this morning, monday morning, 1st thing in the morning. Never showed. 10 phone calls and some rather unruly language later I find out his truck was in a wreck last night and was impounded at the cop shop so he couldn't deliver. Ugh. So now he's going to deliver the material (today) but not install it til tomorrow. first thing. supposedly. we're runnin out of time here, people! jeeeez. SheofDC is arriving in a wee few days and I need carpet! And linoleum! Which I managed to find today. Shortly after realizing these carpet fools weren't coming, I went into town (after hanging at the house WAITING til 11am) and found the lino. It ain't pretty. But at least it's dark blue & light blue. Much more bathroomy than pink & maroon-red. blech! We'll lay that tonight (on our anniversary ~sniff~) and have that out of the way.
I AM SO FRICKIN SORE! My dogs are barkin! My dogs are barkin! I can hardly stand up straight. My legs hurt because apparently they don't remember what it's like to live in a 2-story house anymore and I must've made at least 100 trips up and down over 24 hours.
ANYWAY, today is the day of my 7 year anniversary. And I couldn't be happier. As 2009 is the year of love (and good luck) I think our 7th year is going to be the best. This whole 7-year-itch thing is way ridiculous. When you're married to a guy like the Mr., how can you NOT just keep falling more and more in love with him every year? As far as I'm concerned, I got love in logarithmic style... each year it grows exponentially and I say bring on the 7s. Then again I know I'm lucky and I got lucky and not everyone gets lucky, so I'll just keep counting my blessings and remind myself to stop complaining about the little stuff. My life could have been very, very different and I would be less of a person if it wasn't for meeting the Mr. 9 years ago and marrying him nearly 2 years later.
Unfortunately there's still too much work to be done in the house, to really go out and celebrate love and romance tonight (but we knew that, which is why we pulled out all the stops on valentine's day) but I'm not sweating it, because I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Saturday night we all went to bed with not even an open square inch of floor space in the whole house, due to boxes of junk and random bits and pieces everywhere. Sunday night we went to bed and you could see that people did indeed live in the house, and that it wasn't just a Federal Emergency/Disaster Zone. Hell, there were even pictures hanging up on the walls. Just shy of "presentable". Tonight, things like clocks and decorations and books will make their debut out in the open, after 2 weeks in a box, and then tomorrow there will be carpet and lino upstairs in the master loft. Just in time for SheofDC on thursday.
Along that line is Emelda, my new maid. She was helping the previous tenants move out and was cleaning the place up for them on the day we moved in. She's lovely and from Zim, like Mary, and she and Mary had a nice chat and liked each other, and I kind of felt like it was Mary "handing me off" to someone else, that day.... it was just a vibe, I can't really say what, so after watching her work that day I thought she would be great and asked her if she wanted to work for us and she said yes. woo hoo! She's lovely and today I showed her all the ins and outs of working for the wayward family and their hounds, and I think she'll be just fine. She was a little scared of our laundry machine and her mop water looked pretty rank after cleaning the tiles but nothing traumatic. And she likes dogs and is quite busy talking to them while she works, so I'm chuffed. Whew. That was one thing still left weighing on my mind = sorted.
Mary gave me a chicken to say good bye on saturday and gave me a huge cuddle and picked me up and swung me around a little bit. The Mr. dropped her home that night and apparently there was an emotional moment there too. :( But she's still intending to clean our office for us once a week so at least we'll still see her a bit. I would miss her sooooooooo much otherwise, and would have to make some excuse up like going out to buy more chickens off of her every week or something (she'd run out within a couple months I think), if she wouldn't. What with my aims of trying to eat more local and free range these days, that wouldn't actually be such a bad deal. Just not on the way to anywhere...
I will wait til all of the above house-things have been accomplished before taking "after-" photos, but hopefully tomorrow I will have a chance to at least post "before".
