GarniGal's Journal:

Hello Flist, Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm having a lovely Valentine's myself - we're in Denver. We arrived on Friday afternoon, and basically got the car, got to the hotel, got some (a whole lot) of deep fried food, and went to bed (groaning in misery because of the food). On Saturday we slept in, then spontaneously decided to head to Manitou Springs to take the cog railway as far up Pike's Peak as the snow allowed (about 11,500 feet). I nearly filled a camera card with pictures of pointy rocks, but I won't post them until I get home and do some post production on them. On the way home we stopped at Castle Rock and hit the outlets - new coats for both of us, 5 new bras for me, some new sweaters for Derek, and much less money. :) We stopped at Sweet Tomato for dinner, which was awesome. Vegetables!!!!

Sunday was ski day! We ended up at Loveland instead of Winter Park on the advice of the ski rental place in Idaho Springs. Maison de Ski is awesome and the staff is fantastic - we loved Loveland. Short lift lines and we saw the freaking Continental Divide. It was very windy at the top though - we got to about 12,000 feet and the snow was definitely blowing. One weird thing about skiing at Loveland - no safety bars on the lifts. It freaked me out at first. We returned our skis and they suggested we try the BBQ place up the street. No vegetables there, but the smoked prime rib sandwich was fantastic.

Today was Derek's first training day, and I was working in the hotel room. We went out for steak for supper.

We still have until Sunday, so we're going to hit Boulder and maybe do some stuff in Denver in the evenings. I'll keep ya'll up to date. (I'm turning all country! Wait, I talked like that before.)

I've gone all stupid in the past week.

I have this notebook that I carry everywhere. It has a list of books I want to read, music I want to download, movies I want to rent... I add to it and delete from it on a near daily basis. It also has not only mine and Derek's Christmas lists, but also the list of people I'm getting gifts for and what I should get them. It's got the list of people I need to send Christmas cards to. It's got lists of events I need to go to, when they are and what I need to have prepared in advance for these events.

Obviously, with all that in there... I've lost it. No idea where I put it. I know I had it on Saturday the 20th, because I was at my aunt and uncle's writing down thier lists and giving them Derek's list. I had it up at the farm the next morning, because I wrote down mine and Derek's list for Mom. I remember taking it with me because I laughed and said I'd be lost without it. So, it's somewhere between Derek's car and the house. I think. I really, really hope.

I know I'm going to the movies on Friday. I'm going to the dentist on Saturday, followed by baking with a friend. I wrote down all the baking that needs time to set so I can do that in advance. I found the recipes last night. Wednesday is the TKD grading, so we're baking cookies tonight. That leaves Thursday night for making fudge, handmade chocolate truffles, and spicy molasses cookies. So I should get the ingredients tonight... but the recipes are at home. So home, then back out to the grocery store, then making cookies, then TKD, then chocolates, fudge and cookies. Then movie. Then dentist and finally baking.

And then I have to figure out what I'm supposed to do next week.

I took the scenic route to work this morning, since my usual highway route was apparently slow (thank you radio).

As I drove through Maryhill ON, I saw two Great Blue Herons flying low over the road, following the line of the creek south. There's just something about herons, especially in flight, that makes me marvel.

I've also see 3 different bald eagles this summer, and the third one 3 times. There are nesting platforms along 24 by Guelph Lake, and one is in use, there's a platform along hwy 7 on the Grand in Breslau that is in use and the same deal... somewhere up north on our way back from Haliburton Highlands. I didn't see a nesting pair at any of the platforms, just single birds. I think the eagle I saw on 24 was a juvenile though, so the parents may have been off hunting. The one I saw on Hwy 7 had a white breast, which is a little odd - was that just a variation in the markings, or am I mis-identifying him?

I happened to flip over to Western New York news. Their stories are listed in the order they will be presented on the right of the screen. Tonight's list is:

Air Show
Macedonia Festival
Zombies
Weather

I think if there's zombies, that should maybe be the top story.

I don't want to even think about what #3 could be.

My grandmother got diagnosed with stomach cancer this morning. She's the sixth of the 11 kids to be diagnosed with some form of cancer (2 brain tumours, 1 breast cancer that was beaten, 1 liver/pancreatic, and 1 whose cancer was so far advanced that they couldn't figure out where it started.)

My aunt with stage III breast cancer is her youngest daughter.

We are not having a good summer.

I've been sitting on this news for a while, waiting for a few more details, waiting to get back from vacation.

Well, we're back, and I have a few more details.

Last week, Mom called to tell me that Aunt Debbie was diagnosed with breast cancer. We knew the biopsy showed it in both her breast tissue and in the lymph node, but we weren't sure how far it had spread. Originally, she was told lumpectemy, then radiation and chemo. Today, she met with the surgeon for more details.

It's stage 3. She got an MRI today, but she needs a bone scan still to make sure it hasn't spread even further than expected. Treatment is either chemo first to shrink the tumour, and then surgery and more radiation/chemo, or surgery and then the radiation/chemo combination. And lumpectemy is off the table; she needs a radical mastectemy.

Deb is 44 - 11 years younger than Mom, and only 10 years older than me. She's really close to both her sisters, Mary in particular, since they are only 16 months apart. She's still pre-menopausal, which is contributing to the aggressiveness of the tumour.

I've often laughed about my "stupid-close" family. But now I don't care what I have to do - I just want her to be okay.

It's so hard to come back to real life after even just a few days away. Fortunately, I'm working from home today - I don't think I could have handled dealing with people as well as work. :)

We were in Quebec skiing for a few days. I took it easy, since I haven't had good ski-fu for the past few years, but the new boots and skis definitely worked out. No yard sales, and some truly spectacular runs. I'm totally exhausted now, but only two days of work and then it's a long weekend, followed by Pancake Day!

I walked to the cafeteria at work to get a hot chocolate. Stopped to peek at the newspaper. Was reminded of something I should do, or look up or something.

By the time I got back to my desk, I couldn't remember what I'd intended to look up.

It's about 15 seconds from cafeteria to my desk.

I don't think I've had a traumatic brain injury recently, but I might have forgotten that as well.

I was going to call the entry Life, the Universe and Everything, but that's so overdone.

We had a wonderful weekend. I talked a lot last year about the new house and the work we did when we first got possession. What I hadn't talked as much about is what was still left to do.

The big thing was the basement. The previous owners had a dog and a cat (and apparently a lax attitude to cleaning carpets), and we've got 4 cats and allergies. It didn't take too long before going down to the basement (fully finished) was unpleasant. The plan had always been to replace the carpet with laminate and eventually get new furniture.

Laminate went in on Saturday. :D

We'd done a little bit of prep work (moving some small things off the carpet), but I really dove in after work on Friday. By the time D and Ashley got home, all that was left was a speaker, the futon and the twin bed (our version of basement furniture). Then we went to work on the baseboards, carpet, underlayment and tack strips. It took three hours and was dirty sweaty, kind of awful work, but we finished by about midnight.

We'd already gotten the laminate when it was on sale, but I had to get underlay. By the time I got back, Ashley's dad had the saw set up, so we got to it. We worked for about 45 minutes or an hour, then Andy had to cover the store while D and Ashley went to a grad school info session. I took that time to exchange a damaged box of flooring and pick up lunch. We ate when everyone got back, then went back to work.

Floor was finished by 6. And then D started on setting up the surround sound D's parents gave us when they downsized to a condo. :) Once he got that set up, we grabbed blankets and hung out on the new floor and watched V for Vendetta.

The floor is awesome.

Sunday we were having friends for dinner and games, so we headed out in the late afternoon to get groceries. Get groceries and go a furniture store.

So, we bought furniture.

We wandered the store for a bit, then a salesguy came over to help. Turns out he was the GM of the store, but he was also the softest spoken man I've ever met. Very helpful, very low key. We went in looking for a sectional for the basement, but the leather sectional was ugly. A very cute three piece set was nearby, but it wasn't right for the basement. Would have been awesome in the upstairs living room though. :) So I asked about "leather-like" sectionals, and he showed us a really cute small vinyl set and D (smart, smart D) asked what it would cost to get it made in leather. Only $300 more for leather. Both sets are made by the same company in Toronto, both sets are hardwood frame with full leather back and sides. Both sets for $3047 taxes and delivery included.

And they are so preeeettty! It's all tiny and brown leather and comfy. I'll take pictures when we've got it in place.

They are making everything at once so the leather matches, and now we just have to wait until Nov 28th until it's delivered.

Oh, and we had a lovely dinner and played a zombie game with friends. :)

So all in all, a very busy, fruitful weekend.

Had an excellent long weekend.

SIL's b-day was on Saturday so we went to Toronto to have dinner with them and a bunch of their friends. We'd watched Glee on the previous Wednesday, and D had talked to one of the Toronto people about it and the decision was made that we needed to go to Karaoke.

Karaoke is different in Koreatown. :) We had a room, instead of a bar filled with people we didn't know. There was no waiting, and we sang a lot of cheesy songs. My faves were Lori rocking the Copacabana, Bon Jovi (doesn't matter what song, they are all good), and Aqua's Barbie Girl.

Sunday we were having a bunch of people over for BBQ, so we spent some time cleaning. And we took a time out to let the cats play in the backyard one at a time. And I misjudged how stressed AJ was outside. And he bit me. And I could see my veins. And it is all read and swollen. And tomorrow I think I'd better go to the doctor and get antibiotics. /angling for sympathy

The BBQ was good though.