Only so much internet a person can take
And I'm reaching my limit, oh yes I am. Since the New Year, I've been healthy maybe a total of five days. Sinus infections, laryngitis, upper respiratory infections, you name it, I had it. I just can't seem to get my feet under me, health wise. Work is piling up all around me and I'm spending days on end reading the internet and drinking tea. I think my brain is ready to dribble out of my ears but that may just be the cold medicine. At least the cats are happy with my new habits.
We still haven't heard anything from the police wrt our break in. I want to call and see if we can at least get the stuff they took as evidence back. My one remaining "stuff" box is at the police station and its all the more precious seeing how its the last one. My nerves have somewhat settled down. I don't panic and grab a Heave Object(tm) every time I hear something unexpected in the house. Life goes on.
On the up side, I have so many things to look forward to this year.
We found out that the upstairs of our house is structurally unsound. Seems like the old owners remodeled and ripped down walls without ever considering the little things ... like load bearing walls and weight distribution. The ceiling to the upstairs is slowly coming down to join us and it might bring the roof along for kicks. So now we have to gut the upstairs, rip out the support beams (which are bowed to all heck) and rebuild it.
Why am I looking forward to this? Because we basically get to make the upstairs whatever we want. We get to get rid of the fugly paneling in the spare bedroom and put down nice flooring instead of the hotel brown carpeting that's there now and we'll have an actual working bathroom and everything. This makes me happy. I like our house but the decorating choices in the upstairs are rather regrettable. More importantly, we get to insulate the heck out of the ceiling and walls and that should get rid of our ice damming problems. This is the LAST winter that we'll ever have to scrape the roof.
Also on the "can't wait" list is Hawaii. We haven't had a real vacation in years and we haven't had a trip Chris and George since 2005. So now I'm going to spend a week hiking volcanoes and sitting on the beach with three of my favorite people in the entire world. Heading to the big island this time. Seems funny to have been to Hawaii twice before and never gone volcano hiking. The only live volcanoes I've ever seen were in Albuquerque and, frankly, those things are less than majestic. Think Bog of Eternal Stench for a visual picture.
Sometime after Hawaii, we'll be getting a puppy. One of my friends from the barn breeds Tervurens and I'm on the wait list for the next litter, which isn't even a glint in the mother's eye yet. Her dogs are absolutely gorgeous and are scary smart and just sweethearts to be around. I don't especially want a puppy (chew chew piddle piddle) but the breeder thinks that's the best way to ensure an easy integration with the existing pets. Tervs apparently bond with anything they're raised with, be it kids, cats, rabbits, whatever.
The Boy is very excited since he's never actually raised a puppy. His dog growing up was a pound rescue and he's twitterpaited with the idea of a cute fuzz ball all our own. Me, I've had puppies before. My family bred the occasional litter of beagles. I know what destructive little monsters they are but it is what it is. I'm not willing to risk injuring the cats or ferrets by bringing an adult into the house. The Boy has a sabbatical coming up and I'm probably going to take a few weeks off to get the critter settled in and mostly house trained.
I'm hoping to get into agility and obedience with said puppy once it's past its young and silly stage. I need to find some outdoor hobbies that don't stress out of my knee.
Speaking of the knee, its doing okay. Not as well as I'd hoped, not as bad as I'd feared. I've come to terms with the fact that volleyball is never again going to be a major part of my life. I tried going to club practice this autumn and my knee gave out on me after about three hours. I jumped to block, landed and went into a heap on the floor. That was after spending a good year doing conditioning and weight training on it. It's as strong as it's getting without surgery and it will not hold up to a full practice or a tournament. I can play about an hour and a half on it before it starts to swell or drops me. Along with volleyball, I've also pretty much given up on snowboarding. That's nothing but planting and twisting and is just bad all around. In their places, I've been doing more horseback riding (at least I was when I was healthy) and a lot more biking.
Can't wait for spring to get my bike out again. I was getting pretty decent at off roading when the snow hit last year. Plan on teaching the pup to run along side my bike once it's old enough.
Also waiting for spring is the landscaping of the new deck. I plan to make a big flower bed on the south side of it and put in a bunch of roses and irises. I also need to plant a bunch of low bush blueberry bushes along the swamp as part of our plea bargain with the conservation commission. Right now my yard is under a foot of snow and ice but I have great plans come spring, oh yes I do.
So that's the state of the Jo. Sick but excited about the future. And that's not a real bad place to be, all things considered.
We still haven't heard anything from the police wrt our break in. I want to call and see if we can at least get the stuff they took as evidence back. My one remaining "stuff" box is at the police station and its all the more precious seeing how its the last one. My nerves have somewhat settled down. I don't panic and grab a Heave Object(tm) every time I hear something unexpected in the house. Life goes on.
On the up side, I have so many things to look forward to this year.
We found out that the upstairs of our house is structurally unsound. Seems like the old owners remodeled and ripped down walls without ever considering the little things ... like load bearing walls and weight distribution. The ceiling to the upstairs is slowly coming down to join us and it might bring the roof along for kicks. So now we have to gut the upstairs, rip out the support beams (which are bowed to all heck) and rebuild it.
Why am I looking forward to this? Because we basically get to make the upstairs whatever we want. We get to get rid of the fugly paneling in the spare bedroom and put down nice flooring instead of the hotel brown carpeting that's there now and we'll have an actual working bathroom and everything. This makes me happy. I like our house but the decorating choices in the upstairs are rather regrettable. More importantly, we get to insulate the heck out of the ceiling and walls and that should get rid of our ice damming problems. This is the LAST winter that we'll ever have to scrape the roof.
Also on the "can't wait" list is Hawaii. We haven't had a real vacation in years and we haven't had a trip Chris and George since 2005. So now I'm going to spend a week hiking volcanoes and sitting on the beach with three of my favorite people in the entire world. Heading to the big island this time. Seems funny to have been to Hawaii twice before and never gone volcano hiking. The only live volcanoes I've ever seen were in Albuquerque and, frankly, those things are less than majestic. Think Bog of Eternal Stench for a visual picture.
Sometime after Hawaii, we'll be getting a puppy. One of my friends from the barn breeds Tervurens and I'm on the wait list for the next litter, which isn't even a glint in the mother's eye yet. Her dogs are absolutely gorgeous and are scary smart and just sweethearts to be around. I don't especially want a puppy (chew chew piddle piddle) but the breeder thinks that's the best way to ensure an easy integration with the existing pets. Tervs apparently bond with anything they're raised with, be it kids, cats, rabbits, whatever.
The Boy is very excited since he's never actually raised a puppy. His dog growing up was a pound rescue and he's twitterpaited with the idea of a cute fuzz ball all our own. Me, I've had puppies before. My family bred the occasional litter of beagles. I know what destructive little monsters they are but it is what it is. I'm not willing to risk injuring the cats or ferrets by bringing an adult into the house. The Boy has a sabbatical coming up and I'm probably going to take a few weeks off to get the critter settled in and mostly house trained.
I'm hoping to get into agility and obedience with said puppy once it's past its young and silly stage. I need to find some outdoor hobbies that don't stress out of my knee.
Speaking of the knee, its doing okay. Not as well as I'd hoped, not as bad as I'd feared. I've come to terms with the fact that volleyball is never again going to be a major part of my life. I tried going to club practice this autumn and my knee gave out on me after about three hours. I jumped to block, landed and went into a heap on the floor. That was after spending a good year doing conditioning and weight training on it. It's as strong as it's getting without surgery and it will not hold up to a full practice or a tournament. I can play about an hour and a half on it before it starts to swell or drops me. Along with volleyball, I've also pretty much given up on snowboarding. That's nothing but planting and twisting and is just bad all around. In their places, I've been doing more horseback riding (at least I was when I was healthy) and a lot more biking.
Can't wait for spring to get my bike out again. I was getting pretty decent at off roading when the snow hit last year. Plan on teaching the pup to run along side my bike once it's old enough.
Also waiting for spring is the landscaping of the new deck. I plan to make a big flower bed on the south side of it and put in a bunch of roses and irises. I also need to plant a bunch of low bush blueberry bushes along the swamp as part of our plea bargain with the conservation commission. Right now my yard is under a foot of snow and ice but I have great plans come spring, oh yes I do.
So that's the state of the Jo. Sick but excited about the future. And that's not a real bad place to be, all things considered.