Tidbits

Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…

So Tired…

February 08, 2006, 4:53 am

The last few days have been pretty hectic. This year of the doggy is starting off pretty bad.. Prepare for a long entry!

Thursday (Feb 2nd)

Left work early to drive back to Toronto to catch the 11 pm dcevents bus. Got off the highway at Brampton, and Michael’s car starts shaking again whenever it’s idling (happened the Sunday before from Toronto -> Waterloo). Finally saw that the engine was in danger of overheating. Afraid it wasn’t going to make it even to my house.. Had to leave Mike’s car at my house for the weekend and got my dad to drive us to Toronto. Chinese New Year fortune: Drive carefully. Got to bus stop early, and tried to save seats with our stuff before loading the rest of our equipment. Got back on the bus after loading, and saw that people have stolen all our seats and shoved our stuff into the overhead compartment, cause “the bus leader told us to just seat anywhere”. Strike one against the bus leader…

Friday (feb 3rd)

Overnight bus ride to Jays Peak was uneventful, and got there a bit after 7 in the morning. The connections on the TVs were loose so the movie kept getting cut off. Slept okay. Jays Peak is actually no more than five, ten minutes from the Quebec-Vermont border. Checked into our hotel room, which was one of the few things that went right that weekend. Our hotel room was designated as a late-checkout room, so it was ready ahead of time, and we could stay there until 4:30 on Sunday. The late-checkout rooms are for other people to come and store their stuff before they check in and after they check out (they only technically have the room from 4 pm on Friday to 11 am on Sunday), but nobody was assigned our room, so we got it all to ourselves. Crashed until 11 pm when KD and company arrived. Another good thing about the “cottage” room was that the owners left food in the kitchen that we can help ourselves to, and can donate back if we want. Free food!

The snow conditions at Jay was wet, slushy snow. It was drizzling, and hailed a bit while we were sleeping. The cloud cover was also really low, so visibility at the peak was very poor. First run and I tripped in the heavy snow, hitting the back of my head. Was more cautious for rest of the day. Afterwards, we drove into “town” and got some groceries (read: canned goods). Then played mahjong for the rest of the night, with Mike feeding me some of his cheap white wine from this giant bottle he got. Went off to bed and when I got up later to get a drink of water, the world started spinning and I felt sick. Got Mike to give me back the wastebasket and tried to sleep it off.

Saturday (feb 4th)

Next morning, head still spins whenever I try to get up, and when I did, the world spun again whenever I look down. Not good for snowboarding, so I slept until everyone came back at noon for lunch. Felt better so went out. It was actually sunny that day. Took the tram up to the peak. The cloud cover was gone and the view from the top was very clear. Took lots of photos. Apparently it’s very rare for visibility to be so good up there. Too bad the sun and the colder temperatures made everything icy.. Mediocre buffet for dinner, dance that only picked up after we left, and more mahjong before bed. Head still spins when I lie down.

Sunday (feb 5th)

Woke up feeling the same and just keep sleeping until 11 pm. Morning was rainy anyways, which turned to snow after lunch. Went out for some last few runs. Conditions was much better with the fresh snow. Was suppose to be back on the bus at 4 pm, loaded my equipment on the bus at 5 minutes to 4, and the bus leader was already on my case for being the last few people on the bus. What the hell?? I was early, and just because *everyone* else didn’t bother going out in the poor conditions that weekend doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. Strike 2 for the bus leader. (well, he only got two strikes..) Bus ride home was also uneventful. We got back to Yorkdale around midnight. Halfway home, mom starts messaging me about Duchy’s vet appointment at 11 am and my haircut appointment at 2:30 pm on Monday. At that point, I wasn’t even sure if I could drive…

Monday (feb 6th)

Noon, Duchy’s vet calls saying that Duchy has an appointment with an eye specialist at 3 pm by Islington Subway station (we cancelled the morning appointment, wanted to see a specialist instead). Had to bump my haircut by Heartland to 1:45, got an express cut while Duchy waited in the car, then drove her to her appointment. An hour and a half and $250 later, we are told that Duchy needed another $1100 procedure to try and fix her eye. Booked that appointment on Thurs, which my dad still don’t want to go through cause it’s so expensive… :( Then rushed home to drop off the dog and to pick up Grandma and aunt to drive them for our family Winterlicious dinner at Canoe for 6 pm. Made it there just in time, and was thankful that the snow was just starting during the drive, or I would have never made it.

Canoe had bigger food portions than Bymark, but the quality of the food suffered as a result. But the service was very good, the waiter was very friendly, with busboys appearing out of nowhere to simultaneously deliver all our food. Food came very quickly. Unfortunately, the view wasn’t the greatest because of the snowstorm. Will do a more complete overview of the dishes once I upload the photos.

Drove Mike home from downtown (His car is in the shop being repaired.. Apparently the radiator was empty..), and then back to Brampton driving locally on Steeles cause his dad said the 401 was just brutal (he works in Brampton and only just got home from work when we got there after dinner at 8). Passed Brampton almost at 10, then back on the 401 to Waterloo. The highway was very clean, no snow accumulation, and not that much traffic. Back up sucked cause turning my head too quickly is bad..

Tuesday (feb 7th)

Appointment at UW health services at 10:30. First time I’ve been there, it’s bigger than I thought (yes, there is a shortage of family doctors in Waterloo). Doctor said I’m experiencing “Benign positional vertigo” (which I’ve already diagnosed myself through the wonders of google search) that’s probably resulted from an earwax clog in the right ear (phew, not that hit on the head after all..). So got my ears cleaned, and my blood drawn and urine tests for good measure, and received promo packets of Advil Cold & Sinus pills to take. Lesson learned: q-tips are bad. Still a bit uncomfortable when I lie down quickly, but much better than before… CNY Fortune: Take better care of your health. Rest and exercise well.

Then Mike decided to work overtime until after 11 pm. Sigh. First 12+ hours at work. But I did meet someone who started last month, and have already pulled some all-nighters. Guy said he usually go home after 10, and gets in by 8.. Geez..

Wednesday (feb 8th)

Haven’t happened yet, but the plan is to go back to Toronto to pick up Michael’s car, as it got fixed a lot sooner than we thought. Figured I still shouldn’t be driving that much in my current condition anyways.