metawidget: A platypus looking pensive. (Default)

As promised, here are a few things that I'd put to good use if you aren't using them:

  • Muffin tin(s)
  • Mixing bowl
  • Small plates (bread/side plate sized)
  • Saucepan (small or medium)
  • Pitcher (1.5 L or so)
  • Chef's knife
  • Comforter for queen-sized bed

Please don't go to too much trouble — these are less-urgent things that I'll get if they aren't floating around my local friends, but I'm hoping I can help you clear things out and round out the house for the kids and me!

metawidget: A "palatable" icon with happy face licking lips and captions in both official languages.. (palatable)
I'm writing this from the kitchen table in my new place — I am in the process of moving out from the home I shared with Elizabeth since 2008. We got to a place where we had a big gulf between what each of us thought our relationship should be and I decided I needed some space and concordance between what our relationship had become and what the infrastructure looked like. So here I am, a kilometer and a half away in a little 1940s house with a bedroom for me and each kid, a woodstove (landlords promise to inspect and clean it before it gets cold) and a certain amount of distance. The kids seem pretty positive and practical about moving in; they'll be in on a supply run on the weekend to kit out their rooms while Elizabeth and Doug go to Toronto for a gig. Unless things go terribly, they'll have their first night here then, and then I'll get Vivien to the bus really early for her school trip to Quebec City.

What this all looks like emotionally going forward... is still up in the air. I was pretty unhappy with where things were going. Elizabeth seems to want to go straight to friends and I'm feeling more like getting the practicalities of co-parenting down, being fair while standing up for myself, setting some clear boundaries. I'm lucky to have a broad circle of support and some really good people close to me. Andrea says I'm brave, and has been there for me all through this. My parents are understanding. My peer group is proud I'm taking concrete action. Lots of people are offering help, even the kids (I'll make sure they get some choices about their space and also carry some boxes). It feels weird but maybe I do need to assemble some kind of separation registry and insist that people only contribute things they have doubles of or don't use -- partly to help get over the hump of expenses (and in to paying rents of the current era and child support) and partly so I don't just say "come to the housewarming" when they ask what they can do.
metawidget: A platypus looking pensive. (Default)
I ran the marathon on the weekend and finished nearly half an hour faster than last time — the next personal best is going to be considerably harder to achieve! The weather cooperated and I have been working on my speed — my consistency wasn't there all the way to the end but I was pretty solid for the first 36 km or so and the drop-off in the end wasn't nearly as precipitous as last time!

In other endurance events, our kitchen and bathroom are now both done. Waiting for the final invoice and anything else, but we've put most of the stuff back and are living in them. The space and brightness and lack of impending plumbing failure are all very nice.

This week is going to involve a lot of union stuff; I hope my team doesn't miss me too much...

Tomorrow is Ada's actual birthday: nine years old! She wants to go out to supper for her birthday meal, so off to our local bistro for moderately fancy burgers and fries we go.
metawidget: Person sitting cross-legged from the rear, in black and white with noise and scratches (body)
My back is sadly hurting quite a bit, but I think it's on the mend. No long run for me this weekend; maybe I'll sneak in a few short/medium ones over the week. Marathon minus six weeks!

I think it got that way because last week was a bit of a doozy. Some hard conversations, plus my union is having a bit of a week, and our living room/dishwashing/cooking setup is not exactly ergonomic during the renovations. With any luck this week will be less bonkers.

I'm writing from a new-to-me desk in my basement lair. The old one was a converted sewing table with duct tape over the sharp edges; the new one is from my meta-metamour who was moving house and wanted a home for some stuff that wasn't coming with him (or anyone else in his soon to be reconfigured household). Vivien got a new bedside table, there's an improved bed coming to some kid (possibly Vivien as well) and we may turn around and rehome the wardrobe that was part of the package deal. The desk is from the era of tower desktop computers but I the setup feels pretty good. Elizabeth was kind of appalled by all the (quality) chipboard coming into the house but I feel it was an improvement over the stuff it's replacing and none of it will wind up where she has to look at it. I think the initial shock has blown over. Over a year ago I did a Year Compass and wrote that I wanted to make myself cozy with a new desk. I'm late but here it is. Maybe I'll take another look at what I was promising myself as 2022 was turning into 2023 and see what still resonates and whether there are some low-hanging fruit there.

Renovation: walls sanded, and this week should be a flurry of activities: painting, cabinet delivery, probably not a restored bathroom just yet but close. We did get to see my parents in law, all use their shower, and then go out to a very springtime sugar shack lunch and hike. Lunch was delicious and the hike was very muddy — I didn't quite keep up with my household with my back hurting, but in trying to keep up with them my parents in law were going at their own pace behind me. So kind of a short solo hike.
metawidget: A platypus looking pensive. (Default)
My rear wheel has a bit of wobble on my bike but I don't think it's the rims or spokes — maybe tire's a bit off?

Got out to see high school friends and parents last weekend — nice to see them all, the kids had fun and I don't think we overwhelmed anyone. The kids are travelling better so long as they can dictate the podcast audio for at least part of the trip.

I've had a few kind of big feelings talks with some of my people lately. I'm really happy to have them, but feeling a bit wrung out as well.

Renovations are going — drywall up and all the right things (plumbing, electrical, fresh insulation) behind it. Plaster on Tuesday! Barbecued for lunch (not the first time this year) but ate it out there (first time this year). Also, did dishes at the garden tap. At least it's nice camping weather now!

We finished our D&D campaign with polycule and kids last week — they defeated a dragon, improved the world, and called it done. It was a flagging game, but it was a fun final battle and they earned the win. Dragon was full of hot air, seemingly — she recharged her breath weapon twice, roasting party members three rounds in a row, fortunately they had divided into clusters out of range from each other!

Looking forward to reports of a mostly-open Gatineau Parkway to Champlain Lookout. Maybe I should line up people for a run at it next Sunday, after this week's forecast weather! Got in some good runs Monday, Friday and yesterday -- 31, 6, and 15 km mostly on trails. I think I'll have a pretty good spring marathon but I'm thinking I should sign up for a fall one too...
metawidget: Co-sleeping kid taking up as much space as possible between co-awake parents. (co-sleep)
We have emptied out the kitchen and bathroom downstairs in anticipation of the renovation crew arriving early tomorrow to demolish anything left in there. It's going to be a bit like camping at home for several weeks, but when it's all done we'll have normal-height counters, a built-in dishwasher, better plumbing and a kitchen arrangement that gives us a bit more room to swing a cat (put the cat down, kids). Meantime, our place is feeling pretty small, and a bit like we're moving.

I was at three days of national union meetings Thursday through Saturday, and we're trying to tighten up a lot of things internally while processing the latest budget and rumblings from Parliament Hill. With Liberals like this, who needs Conservatives? I really like enough people in the union to make it still fun, but this is going to be a hard stretch.

I also replaced my beaten-up road running shoes with this year's version of the old model, and have been putting them through their paces. Almost 24km at a run in and out of Aylmer. Wanted to do more, but I was kind of flagging on the way back and walked the last three.
metawidget: close-up of freewheel of a bicycle (bicycle)
1. What is your work/school commute like?


Summer: by bike in my work clothes — Strava on, maybe do an errand on the way.

Winter: by express bus after dropping the kids at school. Sometimes with an ambition to read a book but often just noodling around on phone news, Wordle and e-mail.


2. What did you want to be when you grew up? Has it changed?


I had astronaut, engineer, architect, web designer, propagandist and science journalist in my sights over my career. Now I design algorithms and explain statistical processes and methods to people (including statistical laypeople). So different, but not shockingly so, aside from how far it is from astronaut.


3. What is your weirdest work/school/project related story?


Might be the time I flew up to the Lower North Shore to teach Web basics? Or went to a transgenic goat farm to take pictures for a website? I had to wear clinic booties over my shoes, touch nothing and wash my hands obsessively on the way in and out.


4. What is something you're closely familiar with that media always gets wrong?


The media's understanding of contract expiry dates and real pay has been perhaps deliberately wrong in many cases, but really, even friendly sources often flub details.


5. Describe the stuff on your desk/workspace.


Foreground: cables, coffee cup, phone, two laptops, bullet journal, pen. Background: union stuff storage, binders, basement laundry hanging area.


From [community profile] thefridayfive questions of last week :)
metawidget: A platypus looking pensive. (Default)
Going into the third week of distancing… my colleagues have made a big deal out of making it through each week of working from home each Friday so far.

I'm doing pretty well, have the home office set up and everyone close to me is healthy so far. I'm working, getting paid, getting fresh air, eating healthy food — we all are doing pretty well in this house.

But I'm missing people too. We'll probably be doing Easter in place for the first time in many years rather than going back to Ormstown to feast with my relatives. And I'm missing Heather, Andrea and Morgen — the Vanier end of my pod, who are hunkered down over there. Heather is continuing to read Watership Down to the kids remotely, and we try to keep in touch via the Internet. And I'm glad I got to visit them the weekend before we all went to ground, which was Heather's and my fourth anniversary. I've got lots of loved ones here, but also quite a few outside the epidemiologically sensible boundary. Households are a real thing, but they're definitely not the only thing.

Here's to getting through this, to reunions to come, to traditions we've adapted and to ones we'll have to pick up again. Here's to the couch runneth-ing over again.
metawidget: A platypus looking pensive. (Default)
I had a dream Tuesday night set in the Montréal apartment that keeps coming back in my dreams — my dream pied-à-terre in the city I left in 2007. I was packing up to leave, but couldn’t take everything and was worried about leaving stuff for my brother (who sometimes lives in my dream apartment) to sort out what to do with. There were clothes, mattresses, clean stuff, dirty stuff. I think leaving in an orderly way was the main source of anxiety for dream-me.

Life here with social distancing and everyone home was a bit disorienting at first but I’m starting to get the hang of it — I work a bit of a longer day but with longer breaks and have my little office lair in the basement. We’re slowly working out how to move work to all telework all the time, and I’m taking to it pretty well — maybe part novelty, but I’ll run with it. Planning future work is a bit difficult, though. Next week I plan to retireve some more stuff from the office — they’re letting me go in quickly to get a few things I left in my cubicle to make my home office a more productive and ergonomic place. I’ll wash my hands after going in, of course!

I’m not going to try to cover everything — that’s been my downfall in trying to write here lately — but with any luck I’ll manage a few more posts. Adapting to the new normal should provide some fodder at least!

Spring.

Mar. 23rd, 2019 11:27 am
metawidget: close-up of freewheel of a bicycle (bicycle)
I biked to work yesterday and brought the kids to swimming on the big bike today… it's cold but the streets are clear enough. Part of the street-clearing by the city involved dumping huge chunks of ice on our front lawn and smashing a garden box. It was on the easement and hidden under a snowbank but it seemed gratuitous. Oscar was pretty full of rage last night when he found out.

I'm trying to streamline and delegate stuff at work… delegation is its own sort of work but I think I'm getting some of it done. Union concerns are ramping up with a perfect storm of performance talk season, new initiatives from management and bargaining.

Honestly I'm feeling a little overwhelmed today: beer bottling kind of took over the kitchen last night and a whole bunch of furniture is shuffled around for a house concert today. Our kitchen tap is acting a little flaky and there is a buck of work and life stress swirling around me. I hope things settle down soon. Maybe biking season will be good for my state of mind.

Wooo

Oct. 28th, 2018 07:38 pm
metawidget: A plastic wind-up teeth thing with a googly eye. (chatter)
We have a fridge and potable water again! Yay, back to 21st century privileged life.

I also got to take care of little Morgen while Heather and Andrea went out to see a play… I mostly just swayed while she slept on me, but it's nice to make the mutual aid more mutual — Heather in particular has helped a ton taking care of our kids.

Vivien is in a Hallowe'en mood already. Choice quotes:

"There are no ghosts upstairs… they promise!"

And she was decorating her trick or treat bag with stuff: "a pumpkin, a skull, and a BLOOD BANANA!"

I can't resist saying "BLOOD BANANA!" randomly now.
metawidget: A platypus looking pensive. (Default)
I'm at the sports centre while the kids are swimming — the parent gallery is on the other side of a wall with windows, so I'm watching a swimming lesson on almost-mute. The muffled sounds suggest fun, and there is lots of bouncing and splashing and the occasional "trust you can float" exercise. I got the kids the goggles they wanted last weekend and they're the only kids with goggles in the pool today.

It's been a long couple weeks — still fridge-less, despite having talked to lots of people and voice recognition systems and had a technician visit a couple of times. Maybe we'll get a replacement soon… the city is also doing some municipal water work so we're under a boil water advisory until Thursday morning at least. It's almost camping!

I'm done my antibiotics for my elbow but I still have to wait for the now-not-infected swelling to go down (and blood donations are out until the elbow is completely healed). I feel a little urgency to actually donate because I'm not super optimistic that the MSM deferral won't be replaced by some other lovely normative standard around monogamy and white picket fences.

We all have a bit of a cold. *Sniff* I'm hoping we'll have a healthy, restful stretch with modern amenities soon (and maybe Elizabeth and I will be able to take a proper break together).

Today Oscar gets to go in a biplane with [personal profile] commodorified (and a pilot). I think he's excited and Elizabeth and I will find something awesome to do with the younger ones…
metawidget: Co-sleeping kid taking up as much space as possible between co-awake parents. (co-sleep)
This is going around and has in years past… but it's the first time I've done it and as good a way to break the posting ice as any.

Places I've slept in 2017:

Gatineau, Quebec
Ormstown, Quebec
Vaughan, Ontario
Eganville, Ontario
New Hamburg, Ontario
Winnipeg, Manitoba

I am mostly a homebody, I guess.
metawidget: a basket of vegetables: summer and winter squash, zucchini, tomatoes. (food)
Ada is ten days old today. She's 10% heavier than at birth, doing all the infant things, looking around a bunch, and has completely skipped "newborn" as a clothing size. I think I have the transition to parental leave more or less down this time — a few days of leave before the birth were a nice ease-in, and now I'm definitely coffee-powered but I've more or less hit my stride. I've been getting out on errands and park adventures with the kids and look forward to hanging out with lovely people (and their kids where applicable) in local parks. The older kids are having some adjustment pains — Viv is angling for mama cuddles and frustrated when there's a baby in the way, and both of them require a long wind down to sleep at the end of the day.

We have a nice steel roof! We had our moments when we thought we'd get a baby first, but the contractors pulled through and got it done. We had a stressful week or so where work had disrupted electricity to most of the upstairs including our phone and Internet plug — we had a solution involving an extension cord to the kids' room, but we weren't going to leave it plugged in while they slept, so we had greatly reduced communications — in a situation where we might've wanted to round up midwives and child care on short notice, it wasn't the best time for forced simplification, but in the end the contractors' electrician got things working before we really needed them.

The garden delay due to workers was actually a boon to us as the tomato plants weren't in the ground on those chilly nights after Victoria Day. Now we have a nice variety in (thanks for the swaps, [livejournal.com profile] wisewomanjudith!) as well as some fancy peppers and eggplant and some humdrum-but-tasty squash (bought from Sarah's new outfit, Beat Greens Gardens).

One small downer is that my allergies are pretty wild lately, even with desloratadine and drops. Maybe it's time to switch meds. What're people finding good these days? Drowsiness hasn't been a side effect I get; Reactine kept me up.

In general, I'm in a groove — a tired one but a good one — and life is pretty good and full of possibilities.
metawidget: Sticker saying "you are beautiful" on a black background. (beautiful)
Note to self and allergist: I'm getting eye allergy symptoms for the first time this year; oral meds seem to take the edge off for now but I have drops if I need them.

We had a midwife appointment today; got the home birth kit and a clean bill of health for fetus and mama.

Roofing materials are appearing in our driveway. Our midwife doesn't think roof work will cramp her style.

Stewarding is busy lately. It is performance agreement season. Correlation noted.

I am feeling pretty happy with and connected to people at work. I will miss them over parental leave; I hope we will find time to hang out.

In other news, I gave bow tie advice to a barista yesterday; that was fun.
metawidget: Oscar and Vivien on a couch (Oscar 2.25 years, Vivien 4 mos) (kids)
Woo! Two kids with a pediatrician! It's like we have universal health care for kids or something in Quebec.

Also, I managed to beat the top-ranked player at Scrabble yesterday — most memorable plays were "WEES" (I wasn't sure it took an "S") and "MATUREd" across a triple and emptying my rack.

ETA: Our dishwasher is also working thanks to some help from [personal profile] dianora, and I replaced our toilet flapper (I think the term "univesal flapper" has a nice ring to it). Yay, fixed things!

Year Lists

Aug. 11th, 2013 03:52 pm
metawidget: A platypus looking pensive. (Default)
Well, I think I managed on average to floss about half of the days in year #33, and I've had a lighter touch with the filters online and in person. I think this was a four- or five- massage bar year and I got somewhat better at bringing back beer bottles. The mortgage breathed its last in May, and now our "make the house warmer and the kitchen fit us better" fund is growing fast and I'll be closing in on my RRSP deduction limit. We have a six-foot wooden fence with a gate that Oscar keeps figuring out as we secure it better (now he just wriggles under it), but at least he's down to one choke-point, and we did try! On the stuff I didn't do so well in from last year's list, I didn't get that check-up (no family doctor and not quite enough drive to get it done at a walk-in clinic), and I don't know that I made any big strides in relationship communication — appreciation, I think, and adventures, for sure, and some fine-tuning in timing and medium, but it's something I can still try to work on.

In the no-deadline parts of the list, we increased doctor coverage from zero of us to Vivien, and maybe Oscar in the fall. I started a new position, for which I'm learning a bunch of stuff and alternating between feeling competent and feeling like I just opened an overstuffed closet and the top shelf fell on me. My aches and pains had a good go at me in the spring, but I think I'm done with sciatica for a while and feeling generally as good as I was at last list time. In improving the house, we got a dishwasher, which might count, and I fixed the back stairs last week — their surprise collapse would've been hard on the comfort of whoever was on them at the time. The kids are gaining competence at a frightening pace and Oscar declared he wanted hugs and fire for his birthday party, so we're doing something right even as I feel I could use more patience and humour sometimes.

Here's what I would like to achieve in the next year:
  • Keep up the flossing.
  • Communicate better in relationships.
  • Continue to wear through massage bars.
  • Make the house cheaper to heat, either with insulation or a heating system upgrade, or both.
  • Getting a GP and a checkup/vaccination update might be a tall order, but I will attempt to start allergy shots so I'm popping fewer antihistamines next summer. If I can do allergies and deferred maintenance, all the better.
  • Somehow fix the Wike's stroller mode. As it is, the walking wheel doesn't hold up under our frequent use — three bolts to one frame member is no match for the leverage exerted by bumps and curbs.
  • Give the promotion process this fall my best shot, and accept whatever comes of it gracefully.
  • Reach out to a few more people at work in the hope of developing a new friendship or two.


Here are some longer-term things:
  • Round out home heating improvements and make the kitchen suit us better.
  • Raise competent, well-adjusted kids. Do so with good humour, love and trust in them.
  • Take care of my body and try and make my list of aches and pains not increase monotonically.
  • Get family doctors for all of us in the household.
  • Continue to like my job, be good at it, and be worthy of the respect of my co-workers.
  • Keep learning new things, and consolidate dabbling into competent in new areas from time to time.


I hope I'll do at least as well between now and next birthday as I did in the last year or so.
metawidget: Person sitting cross-legged from the rear, in black and white with noise and scratches (body)
It has been forever since I did a good/blah entry. Life is pretty good, really. Way back when, I did these every 20 entries, so that there would always be one on the first page of my entries. Maybe I'll get back up to that pace again.


GoodBlah
  • We're within a payment of being done with the mortgage — we lucked out on interest rates and help and nice stable professional employment, and now we're looking at owning our place outright. It feels good.
  • Everyone here (human and cat) is currently pretty healthy (even my leg is feeling progressively better)!
  • Both kids are learning fun and exciting new skills.
  • I feel like I'm doing pretty well on my year list, including the long-term stuff.
  • Taxes are more or less done, and look to be in good shape: a refund but not a gigantic one.
  • I took my wedding band to the ring shop, and now it fits (my fingers have gotten more slender since 2008) and it got a complimentary shine as well.
  • I'm happily married to one awesome and beautiful person, and happily dating another.
  • Less than two months of parental leave left. Work will be kind of exciting, but the transition back could be rough.
  • World Vision keeps sending increasingly over-the-top fundraising pules. We got a great big envelope containing an bubble envelope containing a spoon and a measuring tape that they would like us to mail back to them (with a donation) for them to ship to Africa. I gave to World Vision in honour of my Christian relatives who are fans of them. Next in-honour donation will be to MSF or the Canadian Red Cross — close enough in the useful stuff they do, and at least their fundraising stuff is flat.
  • Feeling a bit sciatic-y, a little creaky in the knees and occasionally elsewhere, I think due to moving over winter footing with kids and groceries and stuff. I hope it clears up with better conditions.
  • There are always cool things I'd like to do, and don't make time for. Getting one or both kids to sleep and/or securing babysitting makes this one a little harder.

2012

Dec. 30th, 2012 05:50 pm
metawidget: My full geek code.  Too long for DW alt tag, please see profile if interested. (geek)
Here's the semi-standardized questionnaire applied to 2012 — it was a pretty intense year in some ways.

What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Filed a police report, juggled two kids out solo.

lots more )




Did I miss any useful questions? I dropped a couple of irrelevant ones, and will be watching the memesphere for stuff to add.
metawidget: A platypus looking pensive. (Default)
Not too long ago, we decided to get our worn-out chain-link fence replaced with a proper wood one, for privacy and reduced climb-ability. Elizabeth has been wanting to do this for a while, but this fall I did the research, we decided not to DIY it, I found someone to do it (serendipitously through a co-worker), worked out the cost and where the money was coming from, and let Chris and his assistant Aaron go at it. We weren't sure whether the weather would co-operate with a fence done before winter, but it did, and now we have a nice, solid, tall fence with a person-sized gate and a yard that feels a bit more enclosed.

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