Monday, July 29, 2013

July has been a shit month so far

Well my July has been a totally shitty month thus far and I am still not 100%. I started with a cold the first of July and then turned to pneumonia and now a lung infection. I spent our second wedding anniversary in the hospital after getting so sick, then several trips to the doctor the following week and another day and night spent in the ER on the Friday. Now the last week has been doctors and specialists and tests and more tests, my damn arms feel like they have permanent holes in them from all the blood work they have done.
This also means I have not had the energy or the time to do fuck all around the house or look for work, which really sucks, because we both need to get back to work and get into a routine of some sort. I think life has been to disorganized for a while now.
But for now I need to concentrate on getting better, I have more tests coming up and also more appointments with the doctors and specialists which is taking a lot out of me and I am so tired of travelling downtown and dealing with hospitals and shit nurses with attitudes.
In the end it has all been a basic waste of time in many ways and I am no further ahead than I was at the beginning of the month, so much for modern medicine. Oh well I still have the best family doctor that anyone could ask for and he is so attentive and fabulous. I am very lucky when it comes to that and I also have a great husband and fabulous friends who have all been there and helped in whatever ways they could.
I hate being sick and am so tired some days I d not even get off the couch. I am not like that at all and usually a very active person and one who loves to keep busy and be doing something all the time, whether it is the house, gardening, landscaping or just walking the girls or a bike ride with Matt.
So an update on all this, I was in the hospital on July 6th , our second wedding anniversary and then back in hospital July 12th, sucked, let me tell you, and in between that I was at the doctors many times and since then to visit two specialists. Some days I just can't breath and am so short of breath and have bad chest pains. The good news is I do not have Pneumonia or Bronchitis, so that is the good news.
I have more tests to go through and more doctors and specialists to go and visit but I am sure whatever they find out I will handle and get through as I do everything else in my life. I do love a challenge and will figure it out as it comes my way.
Thank you for reading, be back to write more soon. Have a great week.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Pride in Toronto, and our neighborhood

Well last weekend was PRIDE and we had a blast. Great long weekend of drinks, friends and entertainment. It was amazing. On Friday night we met up with Wayne and went to see Carol Pope, who is just fantastic and a great singer to me a huge gay icon, Love her! We then went to our favorite bar, Boutique and had a couple drinks and great fun with Wayne as it was his birthday weekend as well, He turned 50 on Wednesday, Happy Birthday!
Saturday afternoon was down to the street fair and walk around after the dyke march and check out all the tents, met up with Wayne and later on with Nancy, had a great time and went for a nice dinner at Golden Diner, love that their meals are reasonably priced and you get a great proportion. Had fun and then the four of us walked the streets for a bit more and went to Boutique again for a couple drinks and visit with our favorite bartender Issac and our favorite waiter Will. It was a great time until Ann showed up, Matt eventually got frustrated and just wanted to leave.
I am not sure what Ann has a problem with and get so tired of trying to guess and entertain her, it is like pulling teeth when you try to have a conversation with her and she just brings everyone down with her attitude, I hate it.
She sits there and you try to talk to her and she has no response and then turns around to Nancy and bitches that we don't talk to her and communicate, whatever!
Sunday we went downtown after the parade, no we did not attend the parade because it is just the same year after year and it gets pretty boring, next year we will go because Toronto is holding world Pride, yay, can't fucking wait for that, will be so many hot men form all over the world, yes I am married but am not dead, of course I look, who doesn't?
We had all the intentions of going to see En Vogue on Sunday night but got there a little late and the line up was just crazy, over a block long, no way, I hate lineups.
Matt and I went to the Eagle and had a drink there to check out the renovations, looks great but doesn't really feel like the Eagle anymore, maybe a little to modern for a space which is suppose to be a leather bar, we did not need another dance bar in Toronto, whatever! We then toddled over to Boutique and met the nicest couple Matthew and Melissa , fabulous people, sat and visited with them for several hours, was immensely enjoyable night.

We spent the holiday Monday recovering and me getting a flu or cold of some sort, I have been sick as a dog and am not getting any better at the moment. I have not been sleeping as it hurts so much when I cough that it wakes me up. It also wakes Matt up sometimes and then I feel even worse. Sneezing, coughing and chest pain from hell! I hate being sick and not able to do anything. I am not good at sitting around and relaxing! And Matt is constantly yelling at me and nagging me to rest and get better, he should know me by now.
Got some good news on Sunday from our neighbors that we do not really get along with too well, they are selling, yay! Apparently they have purchased a house in Peterborough and take possession on August 15th, their house went on the market yesterday. Who know who will move in, but I must say I do believe at this point anyone will be better then the unsociables! Hope they also get the price they want so it will tell us more of what our house is worth and you never know, if we got the right price , could sell, but we love our neighborhood and our neighbors for the most part.

Well that is all I have to say for now, thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The front yard is done, and other surprises

Well for the past week I have been landscaping the front yard. Finished it all today and boy does it look great.
I dug up all the former grass which was uneven , badly graded and actually looked pretty shitty with clover throughout 70 percent of it. This took me about 8 hours. Then day two I lay down all new top soil, then a thin layer of gravel where the bricks were going and then leveled it all off and layed the bricks and then planted trees, shrubs and flowers, a great 10 hours spent. Day three was spent sifting through the old grass and separating all the dirt off of it and putting down another layer of top soil.
Now I think we have a front garden fit for a king. Love it.
Did I mention Matt and Jeff watched me work and supervised me the entire project, no worries they were great company along with the two dogs.
Matt could not lift anything with his recent back surgery and Jeff has had back problems as well this last month, two biggest guys in the neighborhood and they watch me lifting, digging and moving bricks, funny when you think about it.
Glad for them both though and rather they be healthy and watch and keep me company and I enjoyed it , because in the end I did it and am damn proud of it.
Check out my pics of the yard on face book.
As for other things , we had quite the challenge after last weeks down pour of rain here in Toronto and this was not a pretty challenge at all and kept us busy all dam day.
Our sewer backed up into the basement from the street so we were ankle deep in water and other things, good thing not much was down there, after we got it all cleaned up and by we I mean Matt did most of the cleaning, I hauled out the remaining boxes on to the back deck, emptied them all and sorted through the last bit of stuff we have to unpack, and made sure nothing was wet. elevated the washer, dryer and folding table onto 2 x 4's, so they are off the ground. and don't rust.
Then Matt went to Home Depot and bought some stop back up plugs for the drains downstairs and installed them, so far no more issues. Thank you Sasquatch.
So that was our drama for the week and now tomorrow I can get to work on the back yard, finish the eaves and then continue to look for an ornate old cast iron fence for the front yard.
Wish me luck, have a great night and a super week.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The things you do

Well it has been just a year now since we lost Bradley and I tell you it never gets easier , it just gets different. I miss him lots as I am sure my entire family does. My heart will always go out to Patti and the kids as I am sure they feel his loss more than anyone else.
Eve though I do not talk to any of them, they are family and I still care about them and hope they are all doing well.
I can not even imagine what it must be like to lose the love of your life and your soulmate as I still have mine and get to be with him every day.
I am thankful to have Matt here with me and to be able to share my life with him and to just have someone who loves me as much as I love them.
I am also sure my parents feel the loss of Bradley everyday as well, you are not suppose to lose your children, It is just still so unbelievable somedays that he is gone. Probably the best man that will have ever touched our lives. We all miss you Brad!

I have been doing lots of work lately around the neighborhood and getting things done and working my butt off in our house and in our yard. The garden is coming up nice and beans and peas and a lot of other things are already up through the ground, so fabulous, can't wait to have fresh veggies from our garden. Flower beds also look really nice this year. Suppose to get a blue spruce today from Flora and will put that out in the middle of the front lawn. Will look great and cut down on our grass which I would prefer to have as little of as possible.

Also in the last couple weeks I have become the neighborhood gardener , landscaper and I am loving it. Xavier gave me free decision on his garden to do what ever I want and I have to say I love the results thus far.
I created a curved path through the entire back yard and then on  both sides I have put flowers and trees going down the path way and a bit of gravel and then a fabulous red cedar mulch over all the plants to add some color, today I am going to try and finish moving some of the plants and flowers and create amazing little beds all over the yard, then plant a small section of grass. I think he will love the finished product when I am all done with it.
I also did Louisa garden and lawn last week and got it all weeded and we put in a huge vegetable garden and flower beds around the entire back of the house, also quite impressed with hers and how it looks. It is a lot simpler than what I have done at Xaviers but am totally happy with it as well.

As for the job front I am still applying and going for interviews when ever I get one, keeping my fingers crossed to get a job soon and go back to work. Wish me luck. OK I have to run for now, time to fold the laundry and then take the kids for a walk and then off to Xaviers to get this back yard beautiful. Have an amazing day and thanks for reading.

Monday, May 13, 2013

This weather is fucked up

The weather here in Toronto has been totally fucked up since last week, It started to screw up on Friday when we went from 25 above to 13, crazy shit! Then we wake up Saturday morning to hail, rain and whatever else you can imagine, this continued on Sunday with high winds and our weather dropping to a shitty 5 above.
The lovely winds are never kind to our old neighborhood, I have to go on the roof today and remove a lovely 8 foot long branch from one of our hundred year old trees in the neighborhood, Last year one fell on our new bar b q and deck, that sucks as well. We have no trees left in our property but everyone else in the neighborhood does so somehow they come and land on our property. Please keep your trees on your own yard and own roof, thanks.
I telephoned my mother yesterday for mothers day and we had the greatest talk and reconnected, it was refreshing and so nice to be able to just talk to her, with that it made my day, my week, my year, she is my mother and so important to me and I have missed talking to her so much. We talked for about an hour. It was nice to catch up and just to hear her voice and know that her and dad are feeling okay and doing alright made me happy.
Matt talked to his mom as well and wished her a happy mothers day as well. Things are going great for them as well. I think we both have some regret and worry being so far away from our parents and not able to help them as we thought we would be able to at our ages.
We had a lovely dinner last night and had Flora and her son Wade over for mothers day dinner, it was great and so nice to celebrate Mothers Day with our adopted mother, she is fabulous and so motherly in everyway, got to love her.
We ll not much else to say today except for one more thing, I screwed up last Monday and have started smoking again, after over five months, I gave into temptation, and quite frankly I realized I am happier for it and feel so much better, I do not think I am meant to be smoke free. Preach as you may, I am happy and accept my decision.
Love you all and thanks for reading. have a great day and a fucking wonderful week, here's to hoping one or both Matt and I get a job interview this week and hopefully an offer to go and work somewhere who appreciates a man of age and knowledge instead of a 20 year old with boobs.

Friday, May 10, 2013

A rough week

Well it has been an extremely busy week and also a rough one, I have been working outside in our garden and also down the street helping one of the neighbors and also helping the other neighbor with his lawn and garden. It has been busy and very tough, and really nice weather which I enjoyed imensely, love me heat and as long as we are above 20, all is good and I really don't care too much.
Had to dig out my one neighbors garden and all the weeds and overgrowth. Looking pretty fucking beautiful now, I am very proud of me and what I have accomplished.
I think I have inspired her to plant a veggie garden this summer, damn I am good, look at me take all the credit for that.
Matthew has recovered quite well from surgery and is definitely on the mend, he has been going for walks and doing little things around the house which is a tremendous help and load off my mind this past week.
Still looking for work and going on interviews once in a while , but nothing lately. The last interview I went on was at Woodbine beach for a manager in a new greek restaurant called Trinity Modern Greek Taverna, I did not get the damn job again, oh well, that would be there loss and not mine. I will get a job when it is the right job and I just have to be patient and wait it out and keep applying until I get the right position.
It will come in time, just not over night and not any of the places I have interviewed for. I just have to believe and seriously have thought that I nailed a couple of those last interviews. Oh well
We ordered pizza the other night from a new pizza place, Big House Pizza on the Danforth and I have to say for the price and what we got, never again, we ordered their Buffalo Chicken Pizza, it was extremely skimpy on toppings and thin and over done, and let me tell you when paying 26 dollars for something which is supposedly prepared by two chefs who have opened a pizzeria, I expect my monies worth, on the other hand it had a great flavor. But I must say in the end I will probably never order from there again.
Sunday is Mothers Day and I will reach out again and try and talk to Mom, hopefully this time it goes better for me and she is more conversational, not sure she will be and am not sure any more that I blame her. I am still not ready nor do I think I will ever be to talk to any of my other family members. I can not stand the fact that I am related to half these people and really want nothing to do with them.
Any how that is about all I have for you all for now, I will be back soon to update our job search and hopefully the final results of the house. Hope everyone has a great summer and enjoys family and friends. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

We found spring

Well spring is finally here in Toronto and we are into the plus 20 and above weather now so I have been working a lot outside and in the garden and stuff, did grass seed last week and planted potatoes yesterday.
Today I weeded the garden and worked it all up so we are ready to plant tomorrow, started tomatoes two weeks ago and they are already coming up, about 2 inches high at this point.
The house is almost done and so far so great, I have refinished all the floors on the main level and they look fabulous if I do say so myself. It took a lot of work and I worked for over a week to get them just right, 2 coats of stain on all of them and then two coats of varathane on them after that. But it is so nice to save something from way back in 1905.
This weekend I am going to start on the stairs and try to get them done and then all that is left is to order our new counters, a nice burber carpet in the bedrooms and a couple small details to do , like moulding and stuff.
I have also painted all the ceilings, the entire main floor and the back bedroom, I have to paint the master room yet but that is fairly easy, just been too damn nice out this past week to spend in doors, Today was out in shorts and no shirt, Thank you for the glorious weather Toronto, I love you.
As far as our lives go ,we have been extremely busy and doing fairly well, Matt had his back surgery two weeks ago and is home and doing well, He is still a bit sore but I have to give him credit where credit is due, he has been up and about and walking as his doctor said to do, every day he goes further and further. Love the fact that he is not in as much pain and also that he is trying to get around on his own, the first week he was home, was a lot of work and he was so tired all the time.
I am feeling much better and my headaches are now only occasional, which is great, had many job interviews and am hoping to get something soon.
I just get frustrated when they don't let you know , either via email or a phone call that you do not have the position, it only seems like a common curtisey and is something as a former manager for many years that I practiced on a regular basis.
So that is our lives in a nut shell, May the weather be great where ever you are and may happy thoughts follow you in life always. Have a great day and thank you for reading.