My new list of goals

My new list of goals

1/2 - cook about a month worth of meals (20 supper and 20 breakfast)
YES - do some decluttering (who can't say that)
NO - mow the lawn for the first time, maybe even rake
YES - fix door in the addition
YES - put door on pan cabinet
YES - move Tupperware cabinet onto counter
YES - pull out stove and clean behind it
- organize my coupons
- finish painting my stairs
- insulate door in the addition
- put work schedule on outlook
- clean out and drywall addition and mudroom
- wash pillows
- change CFL in living room lamp (tedious and time consuming)
- move storage cabinet into the addition
- golf on Wednesday
- baseball on Thursday

So I haven't cooked any suppers yet and I haven't yet decided what I want to cook. I have to peruse some recipes and figure that out.

I often joke about having adult ADHD but the older I get the more I think that it might be more true than funny. Either that or I have a case of the bi-polar. (No offense intended to anyone clinically diagnosed with either ailment, please read further before you get angry.)

I woke up today and I was terrified because I had this crazy dream about a door being in the wall of my basement that only homeless people knew about and used to congregate in my basement when it was cold or rainy. At any rate, after the terror had passed, I got up with some vigour and excitement about the day ahead. I had no definite plan but I felt that today would be productive. And it appears I was right although nothing I did was actually intended.

I made a nice breakfast of waffles and bacon when I awoke and I have discovered that the downfall of regular meals is that you get hungry on a regular basis. I usually don't eat more than one meal a day so this three meal thing is a pain. So I decided I would take a couple of steaks out of the freezer for later. I went into the addition and immediately got sidetracked by a bag of recycling. Before I got to the freezer, I went back into the house to grab some newspapers for the recycling bag.

ASIDE - Usually when I go grocery shopping, I come in the back door with the bags because the kitchen is right there instead of dragging them through the house. During the winter, probably sometime in January, I came in the back door and then spent about 45 minutes trying to get it shut. It was hard to close and I didn't even try to open it again until last week when I figured that the winter melt was over and the door would be easy to open. Well I didn't try because I noticed that the deadbolt was bent as the door had obviously shifted quite dramatically. (Very scary - what does that mean for my foundation? I won't even worry about that until I have to.)

Anyhoo, when I came back with the recycling, my next thought was, Hmm, I should try to get that door open and I can take the recycling out now. So after about an hour, two screwdriver bits and a fair amount of swearing. I did get the door fixed, which is ok after all it was on my list of goals. Oh yes, I have added a few new goals and added the things I did that I didn't plan on. I know I won't get the drywall up in the mudroom and addition but I do intend on cleaning them out. Then I decided I wanted to move my coffeemaker. That involved moving a small cabinet from one counter to another. I then decided to finally put the door on the counter I had just moved the cabinet from. I had put it off because I thought it would be difficult. Guess what, it took me about 10 seconds. Stupid, stupid, why do I procrastinate?!

So all of this took about two and a half hours. I was sweaty and tired and sat down to take a long gulp of my water bottle. I then noticed an odd pain. Damn, I never did take the bloody steaks out of the freezer.

As a result, I went to the addition and I took out the steaks. It was actually a struggle to stay focused. I had so many little projects zipping through my head. But I did take them out and have them for supper and it was fantastic. All that done because of steaks for supper.

Three and a half days left.

One goal accomplished!

So the casserole was alright. I got up this morning and popped it in the oven. It was nice, I don't normally have breakfast but I woke up pretty excited knowing that it was waiting for me. It doesn't take much to make me happy. It was a little bland without salt but I added some and it was fine. I also discovered that it has to sit for about 10 minutes before you cut into it. It was a little runny, or rather oily from the sausage I think. So after I scarfed down a couple of pieces, I still had four small pieces to throw in the freezer for other happy mornings.

So it is 11 PM and I just finished putting together another one. I didn't have any sausage so I cut up bacon. Also this time, I sauteed, onions and mushrooms and red pepper before adding. I found the onion a little raw for my liking. I also added some wing sauce. Probably too much, I love the taste but I hate the heat. I added it to the saute. I put wax paper in the pan before adding the ingredients and have put it in the fridge for the flavours to mix and then I plan to take it out of the pan, wrap in the appropriate medium and then throw in the freezer. I also have enough of the saute mix for another one. I also have a piece of garlic sausage that I will use as the meat. I am only missing the milk, so I will have to get milk and then I can make one more for the freezer. So there are my 20 breakfasts. Now I have to get organized and decide what I want for suppers. I have about 5 or 6 containers in the freezer with suppers in them that I have been avoiding for a while. the meals were not that appetizing when I made them. However I packaged them up anyway thinking that I would eventually eat them but no. I think I will have to try to eat them at home. That way if they are horrid then I can eat something else.

Crap, did I mention there are critters living in the space between the first and second floor. I hear sounds right now and I don't think it is the cats. Also, I hear them (I am hoping it is only two small squirrels) in the middle of the night when both cats are snuggled up with me. I am kind of ignoring the problem right now because I am sure I can't afford whatever the cost is to get rid of them. Now that winter is over, and oddly I didn't hear them until spring, I will venture into the crawl space when someone is here with me to be my backup and put some poison in there. There cats have no access so there is no fear of a horrible accident.

Six days left.

EIGHT DAYS OFF, WOO HOO!

Ah the benefits of this new work schedule are being felt today. This is day one of eight days off. I know it feels like a lifetime now but I also know that on the morning of day 9 when I head back to work I will be lamenting about how quickly it went. So I am determined to make use of every moment. My goals for this week are to:

- finish painting my stairs
- cook about a month worth of meals (20 supper and 20 breakfast)
- do some decluttering (who can't say that)
- mow the lawn for the first time, maybe even rake
- fix and insulate door for the addition
- clean out and drywall addition and mudroom

It is ambitious I know but gotta aim high right. I am already ahead of the game, I made a breakfast quiche tonight. Damn I just realized I forgot to add salt and pepper. Oh well, I can add it when I eat it. I will bake it tomorrow and then divide into Dollarama containers to eat in the mornings. I am not a morning person at all and don't get up in time for breakfast so this is perfect. Here is the recipe:

Basic Breakfast Casserole

6 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 pound ground sausage
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
6 slices bread, broken into small pieces

Spray a 8 x 12 inch pan with non-stick spray. Brown and drain sausage. Mix eggs, milk and mustard in blender or whisk thoroughly. Add sausage, bread and cheese.. Pour in pan and refrigerate overnight. Bake in the morning at 350 degrees until egg is set, about half an hour.

I made some modifications. I had three buns that were a couple of days from going moldy so I used those for the bread and of course I forgot the salt. I also added about 1/2 cup of onions because I think everything should have onions in it. I also added about 1/2 diced Portobello mushrooms and roasted red pepper, just because. I don't really understand the mustard but I used it anyway. I will let you know how it goes.

Seven days left.

A Renter perhaps or am I staying

It looks like I have a renter for my house. Every day, I waffle on what to do with this place. I don't want to sell it but I don't want to live in it because I could save so much more living with my mom. But what to do with it in the meantime. Well, sadly a buddy from work has just broken up with his partner of 11 years and is looking for a place. The upside is he knows every thing that is wrong because we have already talked about it. Also he knows that I have been working hard on fixing things up since I have owned it. He knows I bought a new hot water tank last year etc. So he knows what he is getting into. He drove by the other day and liked the outside. We just have to coordinate schedules and do the walk-through.

But there is a problem. My mom. I love her to death, don't get me wrong but she was part of the reason why I moved out in the first place. She can't help herself from re-arranging stuff that doesn't belong to her. She can't stop poking her nose in places that it doesn't belong. If I am paying rent then I am paying for the right to put stuff where I want it. Not so. She was a firm believer in that whole my roof-my house argument. I thought that had changed, she has lightened up quite a bit in her old age but today I was made plainly aware that perhaps nothing has changed.

I don't have a vaccuum, just a Roomba. And it is great because I only have carpet upstairs but my mom feels the Roomba doesn't do a good job and comes with her vacuum to clean my carpets every once in a while. Whatever, I don't care. Well my Roomba is dead, so I welcomed her and her vacuum this afternoon. The problem was a couple of times she asked me if I wanted to do A or B. Both times I said no, I don't want that. Both times she completely disregarded what I wanted to do what she wanted. I feel like she either doesn't hear me or she does and she just doesn't care. I actually think it is one or the other depending on the situation.

So we parted and we were both upset. I called her later to make sure she got home ok because she hadn't called me yet and I tried to rationally explain how I felt. I was hoping she would say that she was sorry that she wasn't respecting my wishes in my house and that she would work on that. Instead she got mad and said she was never coming with her vacuum again. Knowing my mom the way I do, I bet right now she is stewing about how ungrateful I am and thinking that she is never coming back to this house period. Her reaction makes me think that if I moved back home, it would only be a short period of time before I was resenting her and was miserable like I was as a child. The only problem would be that I had to wait a year to get back into my house because I had rented it out to someone else.

What to do? And why I am I so bad at making decisions?

Homemade detergent and credit cards

I finally finished using my first ever batch of homemade detergent. It was good but I knew what I wanted to change when I made it again. It came out too thick and was thus very slow to come out of the container. Also I used Fa soap which I love but the smell was not very strong at all. Also, I felt I needed to add something as I had to use more of it per load then I was supposed to based on the advice of other web users. So this time I used two bars of Irish Spring soap. I grated them and put them in a pot with 4 cups of water. When it was liquidy, I turned the temp down to simmer and put in 1 cup of borax and stirred until smooth. Then I added 1 cup of washing soda and stirred until smooth. Just for added oomph, I then added 1 cup of baking soda and stirred until smooth. I then added 1 cup of vinegar slowly, so as not to foam up and cause a problem.

I use a 8.8 L jug, the big ones with the spout. I poured the warm solution into the jug and then add hot water until the jug was full. Then I just let it sit. Every time I walked by it I shook it up a little. By the next day, voila, 9 litres of laundry detergent. I tried it today and I still have a few issues. I don't have a nice Irish Spring scent like I expected. But on the upside it is more powerful even with more water. I used the amount I normally use and had to put the clothes in again to rinse. On the next load, I used half and then decided to use a third or a quarter next time. That is exciting. I am expecting this jug to last me an entire year. All that for about $5. Sweet.

I also had a small victory. I paid off one credit card. Mind you, it was a card with a $500 limit but it is done. I had already cancelled the card and was just paying it off. Now I am going to snowball that payment into my next card. I have two more cards. ONe with $1200 owing and one with $2000 owing. I have been reading lately about how one shouldn't cancel a credit card when it is paid off because that actually lowers your credit rating but I did that before I knew that information. THat and I was extremely unhappy with the company so I wouldn't have kept it anyway. My intention when I applied for it was to have a card with a small limit as my main card and to put away the card with the $2000 limit.

However, I have discovered the pay-as-you go credit cards. I have a Nextwave Titanium. I use it for online purchases. My thought is that if anyone gets the number oh well, I only put enough money on it to pay for things as they come up. I am going to get rid of this card though. The fees are horrendous. $7.50 a month and $0.50 per transaction. It also charges you $2 every time you put money on the card. I have ordered a Bank of Montreal card - it is the same card load idea, except you pay $10 for the card and there are hardly any fees. So I am anxiously awaiting its arrival so I can stop paying exorbitant fees.

My Crazy Old Neighbour

I feel way older than my years.

When I was growing up, the neighbours two doors down were an older couple. The wife was pretty nice but I thought the husband was a total jackass (God rest his soul). He patrolled his lawn like he was a general in the army. Unfortunately for him, there were about 7 of us (children) on the block and we all used to play together after school and all day during the summer. We did regular kid stuff- riding our bikes up and down the sidewalk, street hockey, street football and so on. He really had nothing to worry about. I mean if he was alive today, he would appreciate us as kids like I appreciate him now as the old guy on the street.

He used to yell at us constantly. These are the things that drove him nuts:

- stepping on or near his lawn
- if one of our bikes was laid down on or even near his lawn
- if we stepped on his property at all
- if one of our toys, balls, hockey pucks etc landed on his lawn
- if we were in his eyesight, earshot when he was outside

I wish he was alive so I could talk to him now. I have become him. I would apologize for causing him so much grief. Don't get me wrong, he was a little crazy and could have definitely benefited from lightening up a bit. But sometimes I purposely do something to make him yell, just because I knew it would ruin his day.

I am now him and I think it will only get worse. I have no patience for the 16 year old to say ... 25 year old person. The older I get, the more I seem to be annoyed by people younger than me. I can't stand it when my neighbours kid walk on my lawn or use my yard to cut across to the other street. I guess I am old fashioned. When I was a kid, I was made by my mom to go across the street and ask the neighbour if I could cut through their yard to get to school. And if my memory serves me correctly, I had to ask every year even though they were the same neighbours.

I really don't know how to stop the progression of this and I am not even sure when it started but I should really just stock up on heart and high blood pressure medication now. Sorry Mr. D.

Bad Customer Service Rep

Did you ever want to reach through the phone and strangle the customer service rep on the other end. That is how I feel right now.

Normally I lead my life according to random events,rock paper scissors and coin flipping. I used to make all my major life decisions with a Mark Messier collector coin that one of my best buds gave me. I have to say Messier served me well. I used that coin for about 6 years and then the change purse that I kept it in was either lost or stolen and I never say Mark again. At that point I was faced with a major decision (that I had a difficult time making without my coin). Do I start making my own decisions? Or do I get a new "special" coin?

See, one of the major advantages to letting a coin decide your fate is that you can't take credit for the results - good or bad. And if your believe that every thing you do is ultimately a result of fate then you really are happier because the world is just unfolding as it should. Sigh, I miss Mark Messier.

I never did get another coin and I have been struggling with decisions ever since. I am a horrible decisions maker. I over analyze and make lists of pros and cons etc. And then when I finally do decide, I rarely feel like I made the right choice.

For example, the decision to buy this particular house. I was searching and researching buying a home for about a year before I did. But this house was kind of an impulse purchase. My girlfriend at the time was living in a place where she wasn't happy, which made my life difficult. And I had some sort of emotional reaction when I walked through the door. I am still not sure what that meant but at the time I felt it had to mean something. And the house does have excellent potential. And one of my good friends is about a block and half away. All of these factors made me feel that somehow this home was divined to be mine.

OK, enough of my dysfunctional decision making process. My point was about customer service people on the end of the phone line. Part of my desire to sell this house is my budget problems. I have a good job but my car loan is $800 a month. (I know, what the hell was I thinking?!) In addition because of some bad decisions when I started living with the girlfriend, I have a line of credit with an obscenely high interest rate that I can't get rid of because I fall back on it when I get behind in other stuff. And winter is when I get behind because the 5 months of winter that are really cold average $450 a month. I know, I asked the woman I bought the home from how much Hydro was in the winter and she told me about $200. Either she was never at home in the evening when it is colder or she lied. I am going with the latter since she lied about a lot of other things.

Back to my original story - sort of. So normally I avoid small problems until they are huge and unmanageable and I have decided that really is not working for me. Instead I am trying to be an adult and head problems face on or cut them off at the pass if I can. My last two mortgage payments were returned because I used that money to pay my Hydro bill instead. (Remember the $450 a month bill, well I only have $200 a month budgeted for Hydro). I had my Hydro cut off last summer because I just didn't read the bill. I even had the money but I avoided what I knew would be a problem and ended up having to borrow money to pay the WHOLE bill and a reconnection fee. Even worse was the embarrassment of my neighbours seeing me pleading with the Hydro guy on my front lawn. So at the point where my bill hit $1000, instead of them cutting me off - in the winter. I sent an email with a payment plan. It hurt my pride a bit but not nearly as much as trying to heat the house with candles and having to move my two cats to a warmer home. Crisis avoided. I know I am getting an extra cheque at the end of April so I just had to hold it together until then.

On the 19th, I sent an email to my bank acknowledging that I am behind and to start taking payments out again on my next payday and that I would catch up at the end of the month. I got a response that they couldn't do it and I would have to phone a number to set up this arrangement. It slipped my mind because to me I had already tried to set up an arrangement. Problem solved right. Apparently not. I phoned tonight and got some snotty girl from my banks collections department. I wasn't defensive or rude, in fact I felt pretty sheepish. She kept cutting me off and not letting me explain. Her tone was immediately short and edgy. I assumed that because of her department, she is used to people with sob stories (true and otherwise) or angry. This was not me at all. I just wanted to let them know I was aware, I intended to pay and when exactly that would happen. Trying to be proactive is good right?

At one point I raised my voice and said, "You keep interrupting me, just listen to me!" Obviously she didn't get any nicer after that but I was frustrated and just wanted to end this conversation. So the arrangement is made. I thought I would feel good about this. It is another step in my personal development. However, I don't feel good. I feel ashamed and embarrassed and angry. All I have to say is I have a 5 year plan and in that plan, I am debt free by December of 2010. If I sell the house, I am debt free by July of this year. Either way I have a plan for success. I don't need to be crazy rich and will still have to work probably until I am 50 but I will be comfortable and I WILL build the house of my dreams. And if I was that person that anonymous woman on the end of the line would not have treated me that way.

Oh, and I did have my fries and gravy. I cooked them in the oven. They weren't as good. And I have decided I can't tell my mom about the fire. She would never sleep again worrying about me.

Fur balls and fire fighting

So another important lesson learned, type your blog into another program and not directly into the web page. When Firefox crashes, it doesn’t save anything.

Here we go again. This morning or rather afternoon I woke up to a pile of fur ball filled cat puke on the kitchen floor. I was very grateful for this because usually it is at the foot of my bed on my carpeted floor. and I usually find it when I stumble blindly towards the bathroom in the dark and feel the cold slimy wetness under my feet. Yech! I was feeling pretty good, I scored with puke on linolemum instead of carpet and I was about to have fries and gravy for lunch. It is there that everything went sideways.

I just about burnt the darn house down. All because of a container of Chicken Delight gravy.

This is how it started. I normally don't fry anything in oil unless it is just sauteing onions or garlic in a bit of olive oil. But I was at my buddy's place the other night watching survivor (damn those recap shows) and she had a hankering for chicken so chicken was ordered. By the by, I must complain about KFC and their central phone / delivery system. The store about 30 blocks away is the store that delivers to her home and it was closing in 15 minutes - therefore no chicken from them. The store about 5 blocks away that was still open COULD not deliver because my friend's home wasn't in their delivery area. WTF!

If we had any inclination to pick up the chicken at the closer store – no problem but with all the snow, that wasn’t going to happen. So Chicken Delight was plan B. And my buddy had a coupon so it all worked out in the end.

I don’t believe I had ever had Chicken Delight before but Wednesday night i discovered they make fantastic gravy. I really appreciate a tasty gravy. I am a decent cook but gravy is one of those things I just can’t make. Correction, I can make it but it usually isn’t edible. So it turns out that I am a little impatient. Microwaves and TV dinners have ruined me. I wanted deep fried fries because, well they taste better and they are faster. So I put the oil in the pan, put a cover on and stupidly put it on high. Luckily my stupidity isn’t total. I didn’t leave the kitchen, I just turned around to wash the dishes.

First I heard a noise, it was a sound like WHUUUMP! I vaguely recognized it as the sound of fire igniting. While my mind was searching to remember what the sound was, out of the corner of my eye I saw a bright flash. All at once my brain recognized the sound instantly. Luckily I am not the type of person to panic. I turned and the pan was on fire and the flames were about two feet high.

My first thought was turn off the heat source which would have worked well except that would have meant reaching through the two foot high flame. My second thought was BAKING SODA. I have a lot of it because I use it for everything so I dive under the sink to grab my big container and run to pour it on the fire. They don’t tell you that when you do that the fire gets a lot bigger initially. I was immediately dismayed by the bigger flash of flame and stopped pouring and jumped back. I put down the soda and went to reach for the extinguisher. (When I first moved in, my mom kept bugging me to get an extinguisher and I wanted to but never did so she got me on for Christmas last year). Anyways I go to reach for the extinguisher and realize the fire is only about half as big. The lazy part of my brain realizes that the extinguisher goop is probably harder to clean than baking soda so I decide to go with the soda again. And the second dump works. Success, fire out!

Now the aftermath, my stove and floor is covered in soda. My pan and lid are burnt beyond recognition. The smoke is so thick I can barely breathe and all I can smell is burnt plastic. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining - it could have been much worse. I am just evaluating my surroundings so I can decide what to do next. It is -17 C outside but I have no choice, I need to start opening windows. Off goes the furnace and I open all the windows on the main floor. I discover that the mudroom door won’t open. I guess it is frozen shut. Just one more thing to add to my list of things to do.

Anyhow, when the temp got down to 13 C from the normal 20 C that I keep it at, I realize although I enjoy the brisk freshness, I can't feel my hands anymore. That was as low as I could go and the smoke was cleared so I close up the windows and put the furnace back on. I put out vinegar to get rid of the smell. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow the smell will be gone.

I still want fries and gravy. Do I risk home and pan for another go at deep frying or do I just put them in the oven. The crappy part about this is, if I had put some in the oven after the fire, they would be done by now.

Here we go!

I have a few goals for this blog. I want to talk about my dilemma with my housing situation. I want to talk about my quest to live a simple frugal life and a bit about my adventures at work. And mixed in there will be general ramblings and funny and perhaps not so funny events in my life. So my plan is to chronicle my journey from home owner to adult child moving back in with mommy and then to home builder. I intend to chronicle the ups and downs of all things related to this. My motivation for this is twofold. There is always someone else going through something similar so those of you having this dilemma can hopefully draw from my failures and save yourself some heartache. Also there is the added bonus hopefully of this focusing me to get my sorry butt in gear. Here we go.