Lasagne fest

Last weekend we made lasagne, with meatballs in it, to eat for lunches all week. Today I am making a spinach/roasted red pepper veggie lasagne to christen our dining set with it's first dinner party. Unless you count eating at it with my parents the other week.

I think this is going to be a pretty soupy lasagne, lots of moist vegetables in it. If it works well I will post the recipe, which is from a Williams Sonoma "healthful eating" book.

Things (read: my moods) have been pretty up and down since the flat tire. Though the general trend is up, and less freaking out. I didn't even freak out when I calculated that we owed over a thousand dollars on our income tax for 2006.

Thursday is the new Tuesday

About four years ago, a friend and I decided that Tuesday was the most evil day of the week, not Monday as so many cartoon strips on office life seem to claim. Tuesday was always the day that Things seemed to happen or go wrong. Not that we'd realize it was Tuesday and then suddenly everything sucked, more that either one or both of us would have one of Those Days, and in the middle of recounting what had made it one of Those Days, it would dawn on the sufferer that it had also, coincidentally, been a Tuesday. Tuesdays seemed to bring with them things like painfully broken fingernails, parking tickets, stubbed toes that led directly to spilling coffee on brand new light-coloured pants. Tuesdays also involved trying to chat up someone nice, then realizing immediately afterwards that there was a large piece of food lodged between your front teeth, or a blob of barbecue sauce on the end of your nose. All of the ironic stuff that happened to Alanis Morissette in that song, only with less irony and more "oh, I really didn't need THIS today..."

Yesterday felt like a Tuesday.

I woke up feeling completely unrested and headachey, I knew I had a few things to take care of at work that could not be easily passed off to someone else, so I went in and tried to get as much stuff done as possible before my brain completely shut down. At 11am I walked to my car, hoping that the 3 or so hour nap I'd be able to fit in before heading back to pick up Matt (we commuted together this week) would be enough to fix the beginnings of a migraine that were making me feel weak and nauseous. It is a sign of how discombobulated I was that when I started to pull out of my parking spot and felt the steering wheel pull, heard the odd grinding wobbly noise emanating from the front wheel of my car...I kept checking and rechecking my handbrake, making sure it was off, kept thinking "I must have parked with the wheels turned to the side, it's sorting itself out". I was convinced that I'd got a cardboard box jammed up in the wheel well somehow and it was working its way out. Fortunately I was also together enough to get out of my car and look for the source of the oddness as soon as I was clear of the space, because my front driver's side tire was completely flat. So much for a nap.

By 1pm the roadside assistance guy had the spare on (shutup, I know HOW to change a tire, but I've never done it, and the middle of a migraine is not a good time to practice a new skill that involves hoisting a car on a lever). Turns out it was good he was there with his box of tricks, because the little spare was half flat too, and needed a lot of air added. By 2pm I was home, after driving along the 52 with my hazard light flashing, keeping under 50mph and trying not to be too terrified of the idiots who zoomed up behind me and rode my ass for a while before registering the whole FLASHING HAZARD LIGHTS thing, at which point they politely overtook me while giving me the finger. By 3pm I was paying the dealership $47 for fixing the tear in my tire, caused by a small hollow metal spike of unknown origin. I blame Miramar Road.

So the whole adventure was finished just in time for me to turn around and head back along the 52 (this time at full speed) to collect Matt from work. No nap for me.

The day got better after that, I had a bath, ate homemade pizza and went to bed early after sitting on the couch for a while with a very purry Tali. Friendly cats make up for a lot of Tuesdays (and Thursdays).

Jonesing

Why Amazon, why?

Why are you having problems processing YOUR OWN visa account, thus delaying the shipping of my shiny new DSLR camera (Canon XTi) Forcing me to further upgrade the shipping to one-day, so I get it before the weekend. Don't you know the suffering of a geek awaiting a new toy?

Nuts. I'll just use American Express. I was going to cancel the amazon card anyway.

This is what I get for sharing a name with a herb

Rosemary is one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants, says Zick...research is currently underway to determine rosemary’s potential cancer-prevention properties.

I can't decide if this is way cool, or highly ironic. Actually, I think it's cool, maybe I should start chewing on my hair and fingernails to help prevent the return of the melanoma.

Hungry? Chew on my finger, it's rich in antioxidants.

PS, yes I said "a herb" not "an herb" there's an aitch in it.

Belated year in review meme

1. Will you be looking for a new job? Weirdly, yes, possibly. I might end up not having to, and I might have one (or two) already lined up, but most likely my work situation will change this year. This is only just sinking in for me though.

2. Will you be looking for a new relationship? No. Well, I'd like to have a new and improved relationship with my body and health.

3. New house? I'm ALWAYS looking for a new house, I inherited my Mother's real estate lust. Not seriously looking though.

4. What will you do different in '07? I'm not sure, I think I have been figuring out pretty good approaches to stuff, I don't want much very different, just more continuation of the good trends, dropping off of any bad trends.

5. New Years resolution? The usual repeat of "get into regular exercise routine", and a more serious take on last year's "get into graduate school".

6. What will you not be doing in '07? Getting cancer. Having surgery and general anaesthesia (I hope).

7. Any trips planned? Scotland in August baby. I hope Virgin Atlantic sets aside some nice price deals for me.

8. Wedding plans? Might be attending two, if they happen this year, no dates are set.

9. Major thing on your calendar? Class registration deadline for this semester, FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of meeting my husband, Application deadline for MPH program. June may or may not be a big fat mess.

10. What can't you wait for? The world to change for me. (It will never happen: I have to change my perception)

11. What would you like to see happen different? Shouldn't that be differently?

12. What about yourself will you be changing? Depression. Fears of pursuing further education, fears of inadequacy in my career.

13. What happened in 06 that you didn't think would ever happen? I got melanoma, I never really thought that would happen, but I feared it would. I developed a strong wish to be able to hide my face from the world. I survived.

14. Will you be nicer to the people you care about? I hope so. Not just "nice" either, warm and loving and the bringer of cookies and sympathy.

15. Will you dress differently this year than you did in 06? Probably not. I might get different coloured sneakers.

16. Will you start or quit drinking? Caffeine, quite likely. Alcohol? No. We nave nice wines laid down.

17. Will you better your relationship with your family? I hope so.

18. Will you do charity work? I probably won't, that's a few New Year's Resolutions down the line I think.

19. Will you go to bars? Not a lot, most likely only restaurants, and maybe some pubs in Scotland.

20. Will you be nice to people you don't know? Yes. Unless they are molesting me. Subway ass grabber don't deserve politeness.

21. Do you expect 07 to be a good year for you? Yes. I'm not sure I've really had a bad year, not totally so. Even when most depressed.

22. How much did you change from this time last year till now? Immensely. Not at all.

23. Do you plan on having a child? Not this year.

24. Will you still be friends with the same people you are friends with now? Yes, I'm blessed with a gaggle of great friends.

25. Major lifestyle changes? I would like to continue making smallish changes that all add up to "major" change, I'm not intending to initiate any major changes by themselves, though by the end of the year I'll know if 2008 will see me become a grad student.

26. Will you be moving? I hope not!

27. What will you make sure doesn't happen in 07 that happened in 06? Pressing myself unrealistically fast with plans for grad school, failing to take the GRE.

28. What are your New Years Eve plans? (This is a bit late I suppose) I spent the evening with friends, alternating between my flat, and my neighbor's. Mostly we were at their place, that's where the alcohol was.

29. Will you have someone to kiss at midnight? I did. My husband. And a few other people, but they didn't get any tongue.

30. One wish for 07? Health and stability. Or does that count as two? Stability then.