And I wonder why I'm sick

The week started off innocently enough as a random sore throat. The occasional hacking loogy was there with the intermittent cough. As the week progressed, the throat became more swollen and scratchy. The lungs are fighting back. The pain is, well, a pain in my fucking ass. I've been popping Tylenol like their Tums while I shine a flashlight down my throat.

All during this week Jason has been working on stripping the paint off the walls and glue crap on the basement floor. The haze! The fumes! The air we're breathing! It's no wonder more of us aren't hacking within the walls of our house.

At least I'm not the only one hacking. Jason is firmly entrenched in the same misery.

You're not in code.

The electricians came out today since we, I mean Jason, knows his limitations. Several of the junction boxes and lights were not in code, something which doesn't surprise us one bit. They're coming back next week to install recess lighting in the basement. I refuse to have anymore fluorescent lights down there. Okay, so it's also because we don't want the pain in the arse drop ceilings either.

Jason's been trying to remove the old paint on the cinder block. The only thing working at the moment is grinding it off. This results in a fine haze making it's way upstairs. He'll come out covered in gray soot and his mask completely dark. None of this crap is helping us feel any better since we're both fighting something off at the moment. He's ordered a product which is supposedly guaranteed to work. Keep your fingers crossed because I don't want anymore dust.

I'm tired of dusting and vacuuming daily because of this shite. It's everywhere. I know I'm missing quite a bit since I won't move furniture around. He didn't realize how bad it got up here until the other day. The last time he'd worked down there I'd mention the haze. I also said I didn't know how much was coming from downstairs or my glasses buggering my eyes. I haven't been wearing my contacts very much so it was a likely excuse.

One of these days we'll have a functioning basement again.

Look at the size of that thing!

No, I'm talking about the spanky, new iMac sitting in front of me. So very odd having a monitor this big. I haven't found the right distance for me yet. And then I got distracted.

I started filling the Nano up with music. We've lost so much through the years in downloads, etc., it's not even funny. We're going old school again and just buying cd's. Everything I've downloaded from itunes is gone. Half of emusic is gone. I was just looking for Tiger Army to load and it's gone. Fuckity fuck fuck. Stupid technology.

Kung Fu Panda and Legos, oh my!

I'm sitting here at the table listening to the sounds of Kung Fu Panda in the background while the older two build their new Star Wars Lego sets. Is there a better way to start a Sunday morning? Didn't think so.

The kids made out like bandits again this year. No one, including Jason, have taken off their spanky new slippers. Jake is regularly seen wandering around the house in his Iron Man helmet. It's rather comical since he looks like a bobble head wearing the helmet.

One of their bestest gifts came from Uncle Josh and Uncle Dewey. They were give measuring tapes, mini flashlights, fat pencils and air horns. Fortunately the air horns lost their power on Friday night. The measuring tapes? The boys LOVE them. They've been measuring everything and anything in the house. Hours of fun, even more so than a slinky.

Me? I was dumbfounded by unwrapping packages regarding a new computer. An iMac to be specific. Jason even got me a magic thinkpad for the mouse. Our laptop is sluggish and dying a slow death. We've been talking about finally plunking down for a Mac this next go around. I wasn't expecting the gift for Christmas. He went with the iMac vs a netbook because they cost the same. Yes, I was gauche enough to question him on this since I thought we'd go for the netbook. Portability does have its uses.

It was a good day yesterday.

I'll be hiding in my cave until Christmas is over

The first official day of winter break and all hell broke loose before 8:30am. Really, children, is this how it's going to be? Colin went off the deep end because Jake stole his Santa hat. He then proceeded in pinching Jake until he broke skin. Why? Because Jake refused to get off his bed.

I'm not prepared for this. There isn't enough mind numbing crap in the house to take the edge off of the drama.

Holy crap, I have generous kids

I started baking on Sunday for the goodies will be giving to the kids teachers and our neighbors. I sent Brendan and Colin to school with tins full of cookies for their teachers. The rest of the morning I finished up my holiday baking.

As I'm waiting for the boys after school I see Brendan coming towards me with his cookie tin. When he gets into the van I asked why he didn't give it to his teacher. He, and Colin, both passed out the cookies to their classmates. They took my saying it's for your teachers as 'hey, lets share with everyone!' Brendan said it was the nice thing to do. I thanked them for their generosity, saying it was nice.

This morning I restocked the tins and promptly forgot them in my yelling to get the kids out the door. At least their teachers will have a bit of a different fare this time around.

In other holiday news, Colin hasn't taken his santa hat off since I bought them on Monday. Brendan lost his at school and Jake waffles between wearing his and tossing it around. Colin asked for two weeks if I'd get them santa hats. He is very happy I obliged.

We're not big on traditions so I haven't gone gungho on holiday crap. Things are added each year as the kids get older. We have blue christmas trees, ornament garlands and santa hats this year. I'm thinking I might go squirrely and get solar powered outdoor lights next year.

Cookie Galore.

Yesterday was spent baking cookies. I forgot how much my back hurts from standing all day. My new recipe for this year was a caramel pumpkin cookie. I will never make this one again. I greased pans. I used parchment paper. Those fucking cookies stuck like you wouldn't believe. I had mangled, but tasty, caramel pumpkin cookies.

The others I baked were called little treasures (chock full of nuts and two kinds of chocolate chips), pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and lemon drops. Today is set aside for feather gingerbread, guinness applesauce cake (for which I need more walnuts) and nanaimo bars.

I was going to make marshmallows but think I'll do those for Christmas Eve. We're going over to Uncle J and Uncle D's house for dinner. I think the boys will appreciate the marshmallows in their hot chocolate.